Globally operating companies increasingly feel the pressure to ensure their compliance and integrity standards are maintained throughout their supply-chain. This has led to a transfer of pressure all the way down to the weakest link, the small and medium-sized businesses. As a result, many small and medium-sized business supplying large international companies are faced with unreasonable demands when it comes to their compliance programs that neither reflect their business environment nor their risk profile.
In this interview, Richard Bistrong, former international sales executive and current blogger and speaker on FCPA, compliance and anti-bribery issues, speaks with Sherbir Panag of MZM Legal, where they discuss bribery and anti-bribery compliance in India. Mr Panag stresses that despite very real corruption risks in the country, business in India is possible without bribery.
For companies to achieve this, an anti-bribery strategy must focus on knowing the challenge and preparing for it, and avoiding avenues of bribery.
By Patricia E. Dowden and Philip M. Nichols. This article was originally published by the Russian International Affairs Council on 25 December, 2014. Republished here with permission.
By Georg Florian Grabenweger, Policy Advisor at the International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA).
“Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have laboured hard for,” the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates once said. And still the picture of this hero of knowledge, wisdom, and sincerity reminds our students of their quest for excellence when they walk up the staircase to IACA’s grand auditorium.
By Virna Di Palma, Director of the TRACE Anti-Bribery Specialist Accreditation and Senior Director of Global Strategy and Communications at TRACE International, an anti-bribery business organisation.
By Frederic Wehrlé
Although there is no statutory obligation for companies to engage in anti-corruption Collective Action, there are references to it in guidance documents that have been issued by governments in relation to laws prohibiting bribery. These guidelines are used by companies when developing or reviewing their anti-corruption compliance programs, as well as when defining the scope of internal policies and procedures.
On 12 May 2014 the government of Ukraine took a step to help encourage much needed foreign investment into the country by signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) and several business associations, addressing bribery and promoting transparency and accountability.
Today (October 31, 2016) the Nairobi based daily newspaper The Star, published an article written by Gretta Fenner, the Institute’s director, on recent and, in her view, positive developments in the fight against corruption in Kenya. The article explains how a change in tack led by management of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), and a new and vigorous focus on following the stolen cash rather than probing procedural irregularities are starting to have an impact.
Firstly there needs to be the desire, both in terms of public consensus as well as at governmental level, though some could argue these should be one and the same in an ideal world. Subsequently, the rule of law underlines the principles of a democratic government and there is no scope, in most cases, to deviate from the law, however damning the circumstances might be.