FCPAméricas Blog
Responding to Bribe Requests
5.28.2014
Unfortunately, companies in Latin America and elsewhere continue to face demands for bribes when conducting business. While many companies have implemented policies and procedures prohibiting bribery and communicated them to employees, oftentimes employees do not know what to do or say when confronted with a bribe request. This post highlights how companies can address this risk.
Before the request is made. Companies should evaluate the likelihood of demands for bribes in their different areas of operation and make sure that the exposed employees know how to interact with authorities and how to respond to these demands. Exposed employees include not only those that will be the main point of contact of the authorities, but also others that may play a role in interacting with them. Companies can include instructions on how to respond in their anti-corruption trainings. They should also consider sending regular reminders about the company’s anti-bribery policies to the exposed employees. Trained and knowledgeable employees, in turn, are more likely to do the right thing in real-life situations.
The RESIST (Resisting Extortion and Solicitation in International Transactions), a free training tool jointly developed by the International Chamber of Commerce, Transparency International, United Nations Global Compact, and World Economic Forum, is a useful resource for companies training their employees. Based on real-life scenarios, RESIST is available in different languages and is designed to provide practical guidance for company employees on how to prevent and respond to bribery requests.
When the request is made. If a bribery request is made, there are practical tips for how to respond. First, the employee should expressly reject the demand and avoid any kind of discussions with the public official that may give room for interpretation that a bribe may be paid. Employees should also consider informing the public official that making the payment as requested is prohibited by his or her employer.
Employees should be very careful because a bribery request may not always be explicit. For example, the public employee may ask for cash in order not to fine a company in connection with a tax violation identified. In other instances, he or she may suggest bribery in a way that is not explicit.
Companies should be careful to communicate to their employees about true extortionate demands because they do not give rise to liability in most countries; these are exceptional situations in which the bribery is demanded under imminent threat of physical harm.
If the public employee insists on a bribe, for example, to carry out an inspection or refrain from impounding a truck with goods that lacks required documentation, the company employee should stress to the official that normal inspection and verification procedures should be followed. The employee should also promptly report the request to the appropriate persons within the company, so that appropriate measures can be taken to avoid these threats in the future.
Most importantly, refusing an improper payment the first time can be the most effective way of avoiding further demands in the future.
The opinions expressed in this post are those of the author in his or her individual capacity, and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone else, including the entities with which the author is affiliated, the author`s employers, other contributors, FCPAméricas, or its advertisers. The information in the FCPAméricas blog is intended for public discussion and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide legal advice to its readers and does not create an attorney-client relationship. It does not seek to describe or convey the quality of legal services. FCPAméricas encourages readers to seek qualified legal counsel regarding anti-corruption laws or any other legal issue. FCPAméricas gives permission to link, post, distribute, or reference this article for any lawful purpose, provided attribution is made to the author and to FCPAméricas LLC.
© 2014 FCPAméricas, LLC
Post authored by Carlos Henrique da Silva Ayres, FCPAméricas Contributor
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