The Time flies when you are having fun fighting for the common interest ... So after 21 years of helping to create level playing fields and making sure no one, not even MD, was above the law, BU is heading to the centre of rising of the ashes world. There he will continue his services for the common wealth good... As For Sydney Australian-Bohemian network it will never be the same...
This story appears to be connected to the Global Economic Crime Survey 2024
PwC Australia > Risk and regulation >
Global
Economic Crime Survey 2024 > Managing
bribery and corruption: Five actions you can take to mitigate risk for your
organisation
Australian Insights: Global Economic Crime Survey 2024
Managing bribery
and corruption: Five actions to mitigate risk for your organisation
- Insight
- September 26, 2024
By Jane He, Partner, PwC Australia and Penny Dunn, Partner, PwC Australia
On 8 September 2024, a new foreign bribery offence came into effect under
the Crimes
Legislation Amendment (Combating Foreign Bribery) Act 2024. This provides a
timely reminder for business leaders to review and enhance key measures to
mitigate for bribery and corruption risks.
Under the legislation, a ‘failure to prevent’ offence has been established.
Corporations can face criminal liability, and significant penalties, for
failing to prevent foreign bribery by their associates. Associates are broadly
defined to include officers, employees, agents, contractors, and anyone
performing services on behalf of the corporation. A corporation can avoid
liability for the ‘failure to prevent’ offence if it can demonstrate adequate
procedures in place to prevent foreign bribery by its associates.
The complexity and challenge of managing bribery and corruption risks
continues to be highlighted in PwC’s Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey
(GECS) 2024. The survey found that 73% of Australian respondents perceive the
risk of corrupt or improper payments as either increased or unchanged over the
past 12 months. This ongoing challenge continues to create a difficult
operating environment for businesses.
The GECS survey reveals further challenges related to third parties, which
represent a significant bribery risk. While the GECS data shows that 77% of
Australian respondents feel confident in their ability to manage corruption
risks, 30% either do not have a third-party risk management program or do not
evaluate their third parties as part of their anti-bribery and corruption
efforts. While implementing basic frameworks, such as a whistleblower policy or
an anti-bribery and corruption code of conduct, is a crucial first step,
organisations should also consider third party risk measures that strengthen
anti-bribery and anti-corruption (ABAC) management.
What you can do:
Five actions to mitigate risk
Here are five key actions to support an effective anti-bribery and
corruption compliance program:
- Tone
from the Top:
Even the most well-designed compliance program can only be effective if it
is supported by senior management. Organisations that excel in compliance
are those where the Board and executive team actively demonstrate and
communicate their commitment to these programs.
- Adopt
a risk-based approach: Underpin your corruption compliance program with
fit-for-purpose bribery and corruption risk assessment that considers both
quantitative and qualitative measures. This enables organisations to
design and implement ABAC processes and controls that commensurate the
level of bribery and corruption risk exposure instead of applying a
one-size-fits-all approach. Where organisations rely heavily on their
third parties for delivering goods and services, these should be an area
of focus as part of their ABAC compliance program.
- Design
with intent: The
organisation’s policy, processes and procedures must align to the
organisation’s bribery and corruption risk exposure and appetite. All
business users should be clear why policies and procedures exist and the
implications of non-compliance.
- Be
data and evidence based: Organisations must proactively monitor the
effectiveness of the compliance program and controls by collecting and
reporting on the data/evidence (e.g. third-party due diligence, gift
register), and running periodic analysis across internal data (e.g. accounts
payable, employee expense reimbursement) to identify anomalies/unusual
activity. It is pleasing to see that 75% of GECS respondents reported
using data analytics to support their organisation’s anti-corruption
compliance objectives It is also important to ensure there is adequate
capacity in place to avoid falling behind on reviewing analytics output
and timely follow up action.
- Create
a ‘speak up’ culture and channels: Bribery and corruption incidents can be secretive
in nature and therefore hard to detect, which is why a high portion of
bribery and corruption suspicions are first identified through
employees/third parties making a disclosure to the organisation. This
highlights the importance of an effective whistleblower program. But for
it to be effective, it must be visible, accessible and people must
understand it. Also, it must be supported by deliberate, ongoing education
around how to use the channels, the positive impact of raising a concern,
and building trust in whistleblower protection.
Addressing bribery and corruption risk requires involvement from all levels
of an organisation. By taking these actions, organisations can effectively
manage bribery and corruption risks as part of ethical, sustainable business
operations.
The dangerous culture that created Robodebt and RoboNDIS