A recent Deloitte webcast poll engaging over 1,000 global business professionals from the financial services; consumer and industrial products; technology, media and telecommunications; banking and securities; aerospace and defense industries has underlined a lack of knowledge of the new UK Bribery Act, and a lack of planning by international businesses to address it.

78% of respondents understood there will be greater global anticorruption enforcement in the next year, but nearly all of those went on to confirm that they were not familiar with provisions in the UK Bribery Act, despite the fact that the new Act is likely to deliver the largest regulatory change in global anticorruption law since the US Patriot Act in 2001.

Whilst a significant statistic on its own this should not be such a shock, as many of the companies polled have been working with the US FCPA legislation for a number of years and the reach of the UK Act will need to dovetail into existing policies and procedures.

Deloitte commented: “Some companies began work early to prepare for compliance. Going forward, organizations should focus on expanding their anticorruption programs beyond FCPA to fully address the new Bribery Act 2010 provisions.”

The greater concern is those UK organisations who have not had FCPA to worry about and with little or no anticorruption programmes of their own, now seem to be taking a less than pragmatic approach to the looming UK Act.

Despite the recent UK government guidance we still see far too many companies who have no plans in place, or have not even assessed their own risk under the Act.

Deloitte went on to say: “Companies need to be vigilant of where their potential risks lie and investigate them fully to identify new exposures. Now is the time for boards, chief executives and senior management to get together and refresh their anticorruption compliance programs to ensure that ‘business as usual’ today isn’t a UK Bribery Act violation in July.”

If you need to refresh your systems or even start from scratch then talk to us. Our self service consultancy pack can help you deliver your anti corruption programme quickly and cost effectively.

Ian Parker, The Bribery Centre