Bribery – the real agenda

Once the new Bill passes through Parliament, are we going to enter a brave new world where the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and others take up the mandate and boldly prosecute where others have failed to prosecute before? asks Bill Waite, CEO of The Risk Advisory Group.

Bill Waite (+44 (0) 20 7578 0013, bill.waite@riskadvisory.net) is the Group CEO of The Risk Advisory Group plc, Europe’s largest privately owned corporate investigations and business intelligence practice.

Well no, the brave new world is not what it might first seem. The Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) presented to Parliament estimates that there will be an additional 1.3 prosecutions a year for the bribing of foreign government officials, one a year by the SFO and a further .33 a year by the Criminal Prosecution Service, hardly the stuff of CEOs’ nightmares.