Anti-Bribery and Anti-Corruption Compliance Program — A Socio-Economic Responsibility

Doing business is not performing mere “purchase and sale” functional operations that result in profit or loss. A company is a socio-economic entity in the eye of the law. It has socio-economic responsibilities. It has to consider business ethical considerations. A business house has to follow and comply with the statutory and regulatory requirements of the territory where it is performing its business.

Corruption and bribery are the enormous evils of the time. Corruptions bring potential threats to the firm or company and invite civil and criminal consequences of the business. Firms/companies should create anti-bribery and corruption tools implementing the company’s own anti-bribery and corruption policy. Thus, they should frame procedures to combat the corrupt practices and to meet the legal requirements and minimize the corruption risks.

If you are eager to set up a proper compliance program, you should go through the unique requirements of it. If your business is set within the UK, you have to find out UK-specific guidance for compliance requirements to optimize your goal. The business goal is not confined in its profit motive but also sets its sustainability program, which creates its mission and vision. Business’s sustainability depends on its good governance and good governance plans for anti-corruption resources to mitigate the following risks:

Liability: Liability of the companies or firms is not only restricted to its shareholders, partners, suppliers, and staff but also extended to the legislations by which it is regulated and monitored. Criminal, as well as civil jurisdiction of corruption, may cost substantial financial penalties to your company, which may eat up your business capital. Alongside financial penalty, the punishment may extend to rigorous imprisonment also. Some anti-corruption litigations have a global impact on the companies due to multi-nation judications.

Reputation: A socio-economic entity like a company/firm earns reputation over a long period, performing it business or service exercising the ethical consideration of the system. Status is the people’s perception of a particular company in a specific time. People’s opinion is the result of their evaluation based on a set of socio-economic parameters. That reputation of the companies creates their most valuable assets ‘goodwill’. Investigations and litigations may push the 

goodwill of the company on the floor.

Blacklisting: Convicted company or business firm against the corruption charges may be expelled from the business world to enter into any contract. The financial house of authority like the World Bank or the EU may blacklist such company or firm.

Opportunity: The opportunity to get away from such adversity is only to implement anti-bribery and corruption tools. Business associates, partners, staff, and suppliers are intensely required to execute documentation against corruption and bribery to comply within the framework of the company’s anti-corruption policy and procedure to minimize the risk of investigation, litigation, and defamation.

Anti-corruption Policy and Procedure should be Proportional

Your company’s or firm’s anti-corruption policy and executable procedure should be commensurate with your business nature, activities, complexities, and size. So, to maintain proportionality in the anti-corruption resources, you have to work out with the followings:

1. Clearly understand and frame your business in the perspective of its geographic scope, products or services that you offer, industrial sector and segment, third-party associates, target customer to formulate an appropriate code of conduct.

2. Framing policy and procedure to outline responsibility and fix accountability for the compliance mechanism. Documentation of practice and system, internal control and auditing, and other such disciplinary procedures.

3. Designing appropriate financial practice and procedure along with accounting standards with relevant internal control mechanism.

4. Outline appropriate internal reporting channels and assistance.

5. Adopt standard protocols for channelizing cooperation with law enforcement body to prevent any malpractice regarding tampering or alteration of documents.

6. Fix a nodal officer with resources, autonomy, and authority as responsible and accountable for the overall implementation of the entire compliance program and ensure the success of anti-bribery and corruption tools.

Top-Level Commitment

Framing an anti-corruption policy with the executable procedure and fixing a nodal officer held responsible and accountable for compliance are not enough to say the system will work foolproof. It requires vigilance. Top-brush management should show visible support to exercise the company’s anti-bribery and anti-corruption compliance mechanism. This exercise will create and foster an environment of cultural integrity in which corruption and bribery will find the hardest barrier to enter in. While explaining the role of top-brush executives of the company to prevent bribery and corrupt practices involves internal as well as external messages of your anti-corruption policies and involvement of top executives in developing a corruption prevention procedure. The senior management’s roles may include setting up prevention policies, assigning management in creating, implementing, monitoring anti-corruption systems and keep all these things under the scanner to review at regular interval. The commitment of top-level executives is to formalize the company’s anti-corruption standpoint in a written document available in place whenever and wherever it is required for any internal or external audit purpose or any enquiry and investigation.