UK falls into line on bribery

The UK signed up to the OECD Anti Bribery Convention in 1997, ratified the agreement in December 1998 and it entered into force in February 1999, but until 11 September this year, the Government had proved less than enthusiastic about its implementation. The draft Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Bill currently before Parliament aims to correct this state of affairs. Under the terms of the Bill, it will become a criminal offence for a UK company to make a corrupt payment to a foreign public official or an agent of an overseas principal. Unfortunately, the prohibition does not extend to overseas subsidiaries. This, however is not another example of the UK dragging its feet since, as Graham Rodmell of Transparency International, the international anti-corruption organisation, explained to Fraud Intelligence , overseas subsidiaries and associates are excluded from the Convention’s scope. “Other states, including the USA, which has had its own Foreign Corrupt Practices Act since 1977, have not tackled this yet,” he said. “And it is possible that companies might still be caught because the Convention refers to bribes both direct and indirect.” Tony Marks of City lawyers CMS Cameron McKenna said that a UK company which directs one of its subsidiaries to make a payment “might well attract criminal liability for procuring an offence.” He is not especially impressed with the latest draft legislation, “It’s sticking plaster,” he says,” all it does is to tack a foreign element on to the 1906 [Prevention of Corruption] Act.” All three existing Acts that deal with corruption, the others are the Public Bodies Corrupt Practices Act 1889 and the Prevention of Corruption Act 1916 , were criticised by the Law Commission, which recommended a total overhaul of the legislation, their ultimate repeal and replacement by a new statute. Mr Marks agrees, “The current legislation does not even define what is meant by an ‘agent’ or a ‘corrupt payment’.” While admitting that they are less than ideal, Mr Rodmell welcomes the new proposals as a start: “In one respect they even exceed the requirements of the Convention since they cover not only public but private-to-private corruption.”