Bribery Act 2010: Making sure your procedures are adequate

The Bribery Act 2010 came into force on 1 July 2011.  Richard Alderman, Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), has been emphatic that the SFO will look to enforce the Act vigorously and the Courts have certainly supported this stance with the sentence handed down to Munir Patel on 18 November 2011.

Read more detail on Mr Patel’s case.

The severity of this sentence reinforces the need for UK companies and multinationals with a UK presence to make sure they have adequate procedures in place in order to minimise the risk of prosecution by the SFO. The risks for businesses working in emerging markets also can't be underestimated. PwC LLP's and PwC Legal LLP's report, Responding to the UK Bribery Act 2010, looks at the impact of the UK's Bribery Act in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries. Read the full report.

The offences

Apart from the offences of paying and receiving bribes and bribing foreign public officials, there’s a new corporate offence of a commercial organisation failing to prevent a bribe being paid on its behalf.

The penalties

The penalties under the Act are severe: unlimited fines, up to ten years imprisonment and debarment from tendering for European public contracts. There’s also the danger of adverse publicity and reputational damage if your company faces an allegation of bribery.

Are you at risk?

You’re at risk of prosecution under the Act if you’re incorporated in the UK or carry on all or part of your business in the UK and:

• you use intermediaries
• you do business in high-risk territories
• you have interactions with government.

Possible defence

A charge of failure to prevent bribery may be defended on grounds that your commercial organisation had ‘adequate procedures’ in place at the time of the offence.

How can we help?

You’ll need to consider conducting a risk assessment and implementing a comprehensive anti-bribery programme. This would include, amongst other things, a review of your current governance risk and compliance procedures, your risk and compliance training programme and your gifts and hospitality policy. If you don’t have these things in place already, we can help you minimise your potential exposure under the Act and make sure you have adequate procedures in place.

Why PwC Legal?

For anti-bribery compliance projects, it’s often most effective to combine the services of law firms with those of forensic accountants. PwC Legal work closely with the forensics team at PwC LLP and bring together the combined knowledge of both firms to really help your business deal with the challenges brought about by the Act. The value we bring to your business is further enhanced by the global access we have to the PwC international network of firms.

To read more detail on the Act click here.

If you’d like to find out more about the Bribery Act 2010, you can contact:

Agnes Quashie
Tel: +44(0)207  212 1511

Ben Cooper
Tel: +44 (0)207 804 2108