Anti-Bribery and Corruption Training

For many organisations, tackling corruption and ensuring that anti-bribery training is offered to staff members is more than just best practice; it’s required by law. What’s more, businesses that perform due diligence by ensuring adequate procedures are in place to prevent bribery and corruption have far greater defence against prosecution should an offence take place on their watch. Evidencing training course completion is a key ingredient of your adequate procedures for preventing bribery and corruption and anti-bribery training is therefore an essential component of your risk management strategy.

Whilst it’s true that no organisation likes to consider the risk of bribery and corruption amongst their staff a likely occurrence, a bribe or similar financial crime could result in severe fines or even restricted tendering globally.

As industry-leading anti-bribery and corruption training providers we’re firm believers that not all online training is created equal and accordingly we aim to ensure compliance eLearning is more than just a box-ticking exercise for corporations and learners alike. Anti-bribery and corruption training is a serious and important topic, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be lively and engaging at the same time. In fact, we’d go so far as to say it’s a requirement for effective learning!

This is why our in-house designers use a mixture of instructional design; things like storytelling, quizzes, gamification, and real-life case studies, to bring the principles of bribery prevention to life.

Bribery is the act of taking a bribe which is a payment or a favour given in exchange of inducing somebody to act dishonestly. While corruption is the practice of unlawful or improper behaviour to use power or authority in exchange of money or to gain advantage. It is a financial crime for organisations (or those representing them) to offer or accept a bribe.

Inducements through bribery and corruption can take the form of money, gifts, loans, fees, rewards or other advantages. These could be through gratuities, gifts and hospitality, fraud, deception, collusion, embezzlement, facilitation payments and abuse of power through bribery of foreign or public officials. While corruption can also facilitate other crimes including drug trafficking and money laundering.

Why do organisations need an anti-bribery and corruption policy?

It is illegal to offer receive or accept a bribe. Organisations must have an anti-bribery policy in place to mitigate the risks when someone who works for the business or on their behalf might be exposed to bribery. Companies without an anti-bribery policy in place put themselves at risk of heavy penalties should a breach occur.

The Bribery Act 2010 is the main legislation in the UK governing bribery and corruption. It came fully into force on 1 July 2011 and covers the criminal offences of bribing another person, or being bribed, bribing of foreign public officials, organisations failing to prevent bribes being paid on their behalf.

How does bribery and corruption affect global organisations?

For organisations that are operating globally, the risks of international bribery and corruption pose a big challenge with enforcement agencies from multiple jurisdictions to consider. This means global organisations need to have anti-bribery and corruption policies compliant with not only the UK Bribery Act 2010, but also the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) amongst others.