You could get 10 years in prison if you fail to prevent bribery.
The Bribery Act 2010 is due to come into force in April 2011. Under that Act there are four offences: the two general offences of paying and receiving bribes, the bribery of foreign officials and the failure of commercial organisations to prevent bribery. The Act will raise the maximum jail term for bribery by an individual from 7 years to 10 years, and a company convicted of failing to prevent bribery could receive an unlimited fine. You therefore need to take steps now to ensure that your anti-corruption procedures are robust.
The two general offences are not dissimilar in substance to the current law, albeit they introduce the central concept of "improper performance". They are as follows;
● Paying bribes: it will be an offence to offer or give a financial or other advantage with the intention of inducing that person to perform a "relevant function or activity" "improperly" or to reward that person for doing so.
● Receiving bribes: it will be an offence to receive a financial or other advantage intending that a "relevant function or activity" should be performed "improperly" as a result.
The third offence is the bribery of foreign officials. This offence will be committed if a person offers or gives a financial or other advantage to a foreign public official with the intention of influencing the foreign public official and obtaining or retaining business, where the foreign public official was neither permitted nor required by written law to be so influenced.
The fourth offence is the failure of commercial organisations to prevent bribery. This offence will be committed where a person associated with a relevant commercial organisation (which includes not only employees, but agents and external third parties) bribes another person intending to obtain or retain a business advantage and the organisation cannot show that it had adequate procedures in place to prevent bribes being paid.
Under this corporate criminal offence, a company may be guilty even if no one within the company knew of the bribery. The company's defence is limited to showing that it had "adequate procedures" to prevent bribery. That effectively creates a burden on companies to ensure that their anti-corruption procedures are sufficiently robust to stop any employees, agents or other third parties acting on the companies' behalf from committing bribery.
The Act therefore puts significant pressure on companies doing business in the UK to ensure that they have appropriate anti-corruption procedures in place before April 2011.
If you would like any further information on this matter, or if you would like to discuss the steps that you should consider taking, please do not hesitate to contact Melbury Construction Consultants Ltd for specific advice.
The two general offences are not dissimilar in substance to the current law, albeit they introduce the central concept of "improper performance". They are as follows;
● Paying bribes: it will be an offence to offer or give a financial or other advantage with the intention of inducing that person to perform a "relevant function or activity" "improperly" or to reward that person for doing so.
● Receiving bribes: it will be an offence to receive a financial or other advantage intending that a "relevant function or activity" should be performed "improperly" as a result.
The third offence is the bribery of foreign officials. This offence will be committed if a person offers or gives a financial or other advantage to a foreign public official with the intention of influencing the foreign public official and obtaining or retaining business, where the foreign public official was neither permitted nor required by written law to be so influenced.
The fourth offence is the failure of commercial organisations to prevent bribery. This offence will be committed where a person associated with a relevant commercial organisation (which includes not only employees, but agents and external third parties) bribes another person intending to obtain or retain a business advantage and the organisation cannot show that it had adequate procedures in place to prevent bribes being paid.
Under this corporate criminal offence, a company may be guilty even if no one within the company knew of the bribery. The company's defence is limited to showing that it had "adequate procedures" to prevent bribery. That effectively creates a burden on companies to ensure that their anti-corruption procedures are sufficiently robust to stop any employees, agents or other third parties acting on the companies' behalf from committing bribery.
The Act therefore puts significant pressure on companies doing business in the UK to ensure that they have appropriate anti-corruption procedures in place before April 2011.
If you would like any further information on this matter, or if you would like to discuss the steps that you should consider taking, please do not hesitate to contact Melbury Construction Consultants Ltd for specific advice.
posted by Melbury at
14:59
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