BDO Comment on Bribery Bill

BDO Comment on Bribery Bill First major overhaul of our anti-bribery laws for nearly 100 years could give rise to a UK style Sarbanes Oxley corruption risk review. The introduction of the Bribery Bill (first reading in the Lords on 19 November 2009) marks an important step in the UK's drive to meet its international treaty obligations under the OECD and the UN Conventions against Bribery. The Bribery Bill proposes a new corporate liability offence of the "Failure of commercial organisations to prevent bribery.” This could mean that a company will be liable if it has negligently failed to prevent bribery by its employees and agents. However, a defence will be available if it can be shown that the company had in place “adequate procedures” to prevent bribery. Mike Mason – the Head of BDO’s Forensic department in Southampton commented: “Recent surveys have found that UK business leaders have little awareness of the Bribery Bill and in particular the requirement for having adequate procedures to prevent bribery and corruption. This requirement is reminiscent of the tightening up of corporate governance in the wake of Sarbanes Oxley being introduced in the USA, but this time for UK businesses. Continuing complacency could risk severe penalties, not only in terms of fines and even prison sentences, but also in reputational damage around the world and international sanctions being imposed.” Mike Mason concluded: “There has been severe and damaging criticism of the failure of the UK authorities to take action against UK companies embroiled in overseas corruption. If the Bill is passed then the emphasis will very much be on ensuring businesses have sound compliance procedures in place to mitigate the risk of bribery and corruption occurring.” - Ends – Note to editors BDO LLP operates across the UK with some 3,000 partners and staff. BDO LLP is a UK limited liability partnership and a UK Member Firm of BDO International. BDO - Belfast, a separate partnership, operates under a licence agreement. BDO International is a world-wide network of public accounting firms, called BDO Member Firms. Each BDO Member Firm is an independent legal entity world-wide and no BDO Member Firm is responsible for the acts and omissions of another member. The network is coordinated by BDO Global Coordination B.V., incorporated in the Netherlands with its statutory seat in Eindhoven (trade register registration number 33205251) and with an office at Boulevard de la Woluwe 60, 1200 Brussels, Belgium, where the International Executive Office is located. The combined fee income of all the BDO Member Firms was $5.14 billion in 2008. The global network has 1,095 offices in 110 countries and more than 44,000 partners and staff provide business advisory services throughout the world. BDO LLP and BDO - Belfast are both separately authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority to conduct investment business. BDO is the brand name for the BDO International network and for each of the BDO Member Firms. Contacts Charlotte Freeman BDO PR Team Tel:020 7893 3590 Email: charlotte.freeman@bdo.co.uk