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Companies face tougher law on foreign bribes
Financial Times
20 November 2008
Companies that turn a blind eye to their staff bribing foreign public officials face the threat of criminal charges under law reforms proposed today.
A draft bill from the Law Commission could see companies convicted of bribery excluded from lucrative European public works contracts, although the plans stop short of the tough US-style worldwide crackdown on corporate behaviour.
The planned law - which follows heavy international criticism of the scrapping of a probe into BAE Systems' Saudi Arabian arms deals - is likely to spark fresh debate over how serious Britain is about tackling corporate bribery.
Jeremy Summers, a financial crime specialist at Russell Jones & Walker, the law firm, said the draft bill meant businesses operating in highly corrupt countries for the first time faced the possibility of prosecution not just for active bribery but for negligently failing to prevent it.
He said: "If it's passed, it's going to represent a significant change in the corporate landscape."
The draft bill - the product of more than a decade of attempts to reform a rag-bag of bribery laws dating back over a century - comes after sustained attacks on the UK's anti-corruption record since the BAE-Saudi case was aborted in 2006.
The 37-member anti-bribery group of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development last month said companies dealing with British businesses should take extra care because of the risk of becoming entangled in bribery.