The United Kingdom has proven to be on the forefront when it comes to combating corruption. Just eight years ago, the UK Bribery Act 2010 was implemented after receiving Royal Assent. Moments after it was introduced to the world, debates, reactions, and comments erupted from multiple entities around the world. Some described the Act as the toughest one in the universe while some were skeptical about its effectiveness.
Fast forward to many years later, where are we? Does the anti bribery Act really help the UK government fight corruption and bribery?
The Act at a glance
The introduction of the corruption law placed a huge burden on companies to provide enough evidence of having adequate procedures for preventing bribery within their firms. It also created strict penalties for both passive and active bribery offenses for these companies and individuals. Some of the prime offences covered in the Act include giving, receiving, accepting, and requesting for a bribe and failure of organizations to curb bribes by neglecting the need to put up prevent bribery.
The Act has extra-territorial reach both for the UK companies or organizations that operate abroad and oversees organizations or companies with a presence in the UK. This implies that an organization can commit an offense for failure to prevent bribery if their employees, agent, or associate bribes another person or institution anywhere in the world to gain business advantage.
Is It Effective?
This question can be well-answered by measuring the state of the nation as far as bribery is concerned. To date, there have been quite a number of prosecutions for bribery cases within the UK and not from big corporates as everyone expected. Albeit these cases require plenty of time to be rooted out, investigated, and prosecuted, things are clearly moving in the right direction. In addition, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has reported that their budget has been slashed by half after the Bribery Act was passed. This could be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it. It could mean corporates and individuals have embraced the law or that it is not backed by political will. More considerations are on-going to determine whether prosecutions are the way to go and if having the law in place really helps steer the country in the right directions.
An anti bribery Act is created to seal loopholes of existing corruption and bribery laws. The UK’s Bribery Act does exactly this. It has simplified legislation but stiff features long and comprehensive prosecution processes. Although it seems effective, it still leaves much to be desired. That notwithstanding, it was a necessary move by the UK government.
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