Companies want stronger action against bribery

Authorities are too reluctant to prosecute bribery cases, according to the heads of legal and chief compliance officers of Europe’s largest publicly listed companies. UK-based firms are the most critical, with half of all respondents thinking the authorities are not willing enough to take legal action against suspected bribery. The findings of the 2008 European Corporate Integrity Survey, published by Integrity Interactive, reveal that bribery (48%) is now the issue of most concern to those responsible for preventing corporate malpractice. This is an increase of 14% over the past year.

The research also shows that even when the authorities successfully prosecute, the sentences handed down are considered to be too lenient.

Mark Pieth, chairman of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s working group on bribery, says: “Those surveyed are employed to protect their companies from prosecution; calling for more prosecutions is not in their self-interest. But companies’ integrity has been called into question by the failure of authorities to properly investigate and prosecute instances of bribery.” Nowhere, he says, is this more acute than in the UK where, despite high profile cases, no prosecution has been brought in the 10 years since the government adopted the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.