The Bribery Act will be introduced on the 1st July 2011. The issue is do small owners and directors realise it applies to them and do they understand what bribery is?
A bribe is any gift, loan, fee or reward or other advantage to persuade someone to do something which is dishonest or illegal while carrying out the company’s business.
Although this Act has been introduced to deal with corruption, it has very far reaching implications for all types of public and private organisations. The Act creates specific offenes: offering, promising or giving a bribe; requesting, agreeing to receive or accepting a bribe.
If you run a small organisation then your policies and procedures will of course be different to that of large organisations and some procedures may not be applicable. However this does not mean that no action is required.
Employers will not be able to rely on ignorance of their employees’ and, in some cases consultants and contractors’ actions. The employer will be liable unless they can demonstrate appropriate steps were taken to protect against such actions.
