UK Anti Bribery Act How to protect your business and staff. UK Anti Bribery Act How to protect your business and staff

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1 UK Anti Bribery Act 2010 How to protect your business and staff UK Anti Bribery Act 2010 How to protect your business and staff

2 Anti Bribery Act 2010 how to protect your business and staff 2 How to protect your staff and business The Bribery Act 2010 has been in use for barely a year and already people are being prosecuted under it. With some 73% of multinationals unaware of the implications, the Act is causing panic amongst corporate Britain. This is because the Act not only holds company Directors personally responsible, but also applies to companies who can be liable for an unlimited fine. With all this confusion, however, many businesses are missing a golden opportunity to use the new law to transform their financial processes and fortunes. By protecting your company against bribery charges through proper expense record keeping, there is a real opportunity to make financial gains by recouping VAT that would previously have been lost through unrecorded business trips and expenses. The Act only intends to prevent bribes which distort market competition and undermine the rule of law and should in no way disrupt your legitimate hospitality and promotion arrangements. The Government s own guidance states that the Act is firmly directed at making life difficult for the mavericks responsible for corruption, not unduly burdening the vast majority of decent, law abiding firms.

3 Anti Bribery Act 2010 how to protect your business and staff 3 Depending on the type of industry your company operates in however, the potential implications may well be significant. This means it s extremely important to record any expenses and ensure your staff are properly trained. If an act of bribery takes place, your company will not be liable if it can prove that adequate steps have been taken to identify and prevent bribery. The Act creates new criminal offenses for offering or receiving bribes, bribing foreign public officials and/or failure to prevent bribes being paid on an organisations behalf. That said, for the vast majority of companies, enhancing internal systems of corporate governance, monitoring risk exposure and most importantly, establishing digital expense procedures will keep your compliance managers happy. The Facts The Serious Fraud Office state that they will only prosecute if the bribery offence is within the public interest and largely concerns transactions between the private sector and public organisations. It is a full defence for a company to prove that despite a particular case of bribery, it nevertheless had adequate procedures in place to prevent persons associated with it being bribed. Only 2% of expense claims are investigated and 20% of firms in the UK do not have mandatory expense policies. These startling statistics outlining the lack of

4 Anti Bribery Act 2010 how to protect your business and staff 4 corporate transparency will leave many companies at risk of prosecution. (Source: Delloite) Surveys indicate widespread fraud is costing British business over 1.3 billion a year, a figure that could be the tip of the iceberg, as companies are failing to investigate many claims. (Source: Delloite) The willingness of organisations involved in an investigation to cooperate with authorities will be taken into account in any decision as to whether it is appropriate to pursue criminal proceedings. The first person has already been prosecuted and convicted under the Bribery Act. Munir Patel, 21, who worked as a Magistrates Court administrative officer, pleaded guilty to bribery and misconduct in the public office. He admitted accepting a bribe in connection with a speeding charge. Patel pleaded guilty to Section 2 of the Bribery Act 2010 for requesting and receiving a 500 bribe for offering to get rid of a speeding charge for someone. In order to be liable the person or organisation must intend to obtain some form of advantage. The prosecution must show that there is a sufficient connection between the advantage and the intention to influence and secure business or a business advantage. If the prosecution cannot prove this to the requisite standard then no offence will have been deemed committed.

5 Anti Bribery Act 2010 how to protect your business and staff 5 Companies can safeguard themselves using the specialist Webexpenses software. Using point of entry reminders, firms can not only communicate their bribery policy to staff, but also ensure all relevant information is captured using mandatory input fields. What Constitutes Bribery Legitimate hospitality and other related expenditure aimed at improving your corporate image and establishing relations are recognised by the Government as an important part of doing business. While the Act does not seek to prohibit or criminalise such behavior, it does recognise that hospitality can and often is employed for the purposes of bribes. The test for courts and prosecutors will be outcome based, taking into account what a reasonable person in the UK would expect in relation to the situation. For businesses and large corporations, dining out and event hospitality helps secure stable business relationships. In addition clients and public officials visiting from overseas for business purposes need to be taken care of and accommodated. All of these, under the terms of the Bribery Act are acceptable business practices. What is vital however is that all records are kept, staff are educated and individual companies

6 Anti Bribery Act 2010 how to protect your business and staff 6 take the necessary steps to protect themselves should a case of bribery be found. In essence, if your expenses are managed accurately your chance of prosecution is minimal. It should be noted though that there are circumstances that would begin to place suspicion on companies. Hospitality should be in respect to the business at hand, expenses should be reasonable and not excessive. Providing five-star holidays for services unrelated to your business is highly likely raise suspicion under the act and incurring serious consequences. The main problem area within larger corporations is that there are often so many business accounts in circulation that it is often difficult to manage. We know that cutting down on the separate accounts isn t an option and neither is insisting that each individual sits down and explain each individual cost within each individual account. What is needed is a method for monitoring costs efficiently and effectively. That is where webexpenses can help. Webexpenses has a variety of applications and procedures that can help you and your company manage every expense that takes place within your company. Companies must incorporate the 6 principles of the Bribery

7 Anti Bribery Act 2010 how to protect your business and staff 7 Act into their formal arrangements and prove that adequate steps are being taken, at all levels, to identify and prevent bribery. Webexpenses software can be tailored to each company s individual needs. This provides an effective solution to seamlessly incorporate all 6 principles of the UK Bribery Act into your risk management process. The 6 Principles of the Bribery Act Proportionate Procedures - A commercial organisation s procedures to prevent are proportionate to the bribery risks it faces in its own day to day dealings and markets. Preventative procedures must also be clear, practical, accessible, effectively implemented and enforced. Top Level Commitment - Senior management must be able to demonstrate a commitment to preventing bribery and foster a culture where bribery is never acceptable. Risk assessment - The commercial organisation assesses the nature and extent of its exposure to bribery risk on a periodic, informed and documented basis. Due Diligence - The commercial organisation applies due diligence procedures in order to mitigate identified bribery risks.

8 Anti Bribery Act 2010 how to protect your business and staff 8 Communication - The commercial organisation must seek to ensure that its bribery prevention policies and procedures are embedded and understood throughout the organisation through internal and external communication including training that is proportionate to the risks it faces. Monitoring and Review - The commercial organisation must monitor and review procedures designed to prevent bribery by persons associated with it and makes improvements where necessary. The Government encourages organisations to adopt a risk-based approach when assessing and managing bribery. A risk-based approach recognises that the threat of bribery to organisations varies across a wide range of factors and encourages preventative measures to be appropriate and focused. How can Webexpenses help you protect your staff and business? We understand that providing a high standard of hospitality to clients, customers and guests is extremely important. That is why we have created a number of features within our expense management software that can help you and your company manage your

9 Anti Bribery Act 2010 how to protect your business and staff 9 expenses in a quick and easy way that cut s admin costs and significantly reduces exposure to bribery risk. Webexpenses cloud based expense software service, available both on your desktop and smart phone. Along with all our standard features such as pre-trip approval, petty cash control and mileage verification, we can also tailor our software to implement and maintain your expense and bribery policy, here s how: 1. Point of entry policy reminders so you can communicate your bribery policy when expenditure relevant to the category of entertainment is being input. 2. Mandatory fields for entries relating to entertainment expenditure can be set. Attendee details can be set as required fields on all client entertainment expenditure, ensuring the user stipulates who the user has entertained, why and how much. 3. Expense reporting, in real time, on entertainment expenditure gives your business visibility and transparency and can demonstrate if needed that your business has implementedrobust procedures to combat fraud.

10 Anti Bribery Act 2010 how to protect your business and staff Expense policy and anti bribery policy can be stored within the system so that you are able to allow access to your employees. These are only a few very basic examples of how customisable and flexible the software is but demonstrates how you can safeguards against bribery risk, implement expense policy and allow for an effective way to monitor and recoup expense claims. About Webexpenses Webexpenses is a provider of award winning web-based expenses management solutions. The software allows for unparalleled flexibility in configuration and ease of use, allowing organisations to quickly reduce travel and entertainment spending and the costs of processing expense claims. From the very start, webexpenses has had one main objective - to make expenses something you effortlessly control; not a costly drudge you battle against. It is an approach which has fuelled webexpenses growth over the past decade; it s now the tried and tested solution for hundreds of clients throughout the world - from small organisations to large multi-nationals.

11 Anti Bribery Act 2010 how to protect your business and staff 11 By giving organisations the tools to control expenditures, webexpenses clients are able to increase efficiency, stabilise T&E spending and reduce operational costs; providing a speedy return on their investment. Exceeding Expectations The foundation of webexpenses success has always been its powerful and robust software solution. But at the heart of the company is a commitment to exceed expectations - to go that bit further to ensure our clients needs are met. Each and every one of our users, no matter how large or small the organisation, is given the same level of personal service from our client support team. This commitment has allowed webexpenses to record some of the industry s highest ratings for customer support and a 97 percent client retention rate over the past five years.

12 Anti Bribery Act 2010 how to protect your business and staff 12 Next Step For more information on how we could help you implement a robust policy, just contact us. Call: +44 (0) sales@webexpenses.com Web: Twitter: Linkedin: Please Note: The information contained in this document is accurate at the time of publishing and is meant as guidance only. We would advise that for any specific information you seek advice from a professional body or adviser, in particularly to stay up to date on all legislative changes.