New from Transparency International (TI) a third edition of its Business Principles for Countering Bribery provide a framework for companies to develop comprehensive anti-bribery programmes. Whilst many large companies have no-bribes policies all too few implement these policies effectively. TI says that it encourages companies to consider using the business principles as a starting point for developing their own anti-bribery programmes or to benchmark existing ones.
The anti-corruption pressure group argues that integrity is good for business.
To read the 16-page document online visit the TI website: http://www.transparency.org/whatwedo/pub/business_principles_for_countering_bribery#sthash.DlHGv6KS.dpuf
In an introduction, TI MD Cobus de Swardt says: “More than ever, the risks from bribery are a major concern for enterprises, whether they are confronted with demands for bribes, faced with competitors acting corruptly or undermined by employees violating their codes of conduct. Since the Business Principles for Countering Bribery were first published in 2003, the environment has changed considerably. The advent of stricter domestic and foreign bribery laws and increasing enforcement, the imposition of record fines and the threat of criminal penalties for company directors and employees have been sending shock waves through the business community. Furthermore, pressures are mounting from socially responsible investment funds and indices, which are applying anti-bribery criteria to their screening procedures. As regulators and stakeholders become less tolerant of lapses, responsible companies increasingly understand that they must undertake continuous efforts to ensure that they identify and mitigate the
risks of bribery effectively.”
Hence the document. For instance on conflict of interests, the document says: “The enterprise should establish policies and procedures to identify, monitor and
manage conflicts of interest which may give rise to a risk of bribery – actual, potential or perceived. These policies and procedures should apply to directors, officers, employees and contracted parties such as agents, lobbyists and other intermediaries.”
