Picture a buyer at a hospital choosing which company supplies its beds. One company sends her a box of chocolates at Christmas. Another sends her a holiday. The chocolates say thank you. The holiday is asking for something. The difference is not the price. It is whether the gift is meant to change what she does at work.
Giving a bribe→Taking one→Paying a foreign official→A company failing to prevent it
The UK's law on it is the Bribery Act of 2010. A bribe is anything given or promised to get someone to do their job improperly. It is a crime to give one, to take one, and to pay a foreign official. And a fourth crime only a company can commit: failing to prevent its people bribing on its behalf.
Each card is a gift. Is it a thank you, or is it asking for something?
One card at a time. Tap the pile it belongs to.
Card 1 of 6
A box of biscuits to the whole office after a project ends
A £5,000 watch to the one person who signs the contract, the week before she signs
A meal at a conference everyone attended
Cash in an envelope to the inspector, on the day of the inspection
A job for the official's son at the company bidding for his department's work
A branded mug
A box of biscuits to the whole office after a project ends → A thank you
Not yet. A thank you. It goes to everyone, after the work, and asks nothing of anybody's next decision.
A £5,000 watch to the one person who signs the contract, the week before she signs → Asking for something
Not yet. Asking. One person, one decision, the week before it. The timing and the target say what the watch is for.
A meal at a conference everyone attended → A thank you
Not yet. A thank you, or just hospitality. The law's own guidance says reasonable hospitality is not what it is after.
Cash in an envelope to the inspector, on the day of the inspection → Asking for something
Not yet. Asking. Cash, to the person doing the checking, on the day of the check. There is no other reading.
A job for the official's son at the company bidding for his department's work → Asking for something
Not yet. Asking. A bribe need not be money or go to the decider; a job for his son, while he decides, bends the decision just the same.
A branded mug → A thank you
Not yet. A thank you. Nobody bends a decision for a mug, and the law's guidance says so in longer words.
3A thank you
vsvs
3Asking
Right. Three and three. Ask who it went to, when, and whether it was before a decision they make. A thank you goes wide and after; a bribe goes narrow and before.
A bribe paid for it
↓→
Adequate procedures?the six things
The fourth crime changed how companies work. A company is guilty if anyone acting for it pays a bribe, anywhere, unless it can show it had adequate procedures to stop it. The government lists six: procedures that fit the risk, the boss in charge, a risk check, checking who you work with, telling and training everyone, and reviewing it all.
The buyerdecides
vsvs
Her brother's firmis bidding
A cousin of the bribe is the conflict of interest. Nothing is given. The person deciding simply has something to gain from one answer: her brother's firm is one of the bidders. The decision is bent before anyone offers anything. The fix is simple: say it, write it down, and step out of the decision.
The agentpaid the bribe
++
The officialtook it
++
The companyno procedures
A company's sales agent abroad pays an official to win a contract. The company had no policy, no training, and had never checked the agent. Who is guilty?
Only the agent. The company did not know.
Not yet. Not knowing is the point of the fourth crime. The company is guilty for having no procedures, whether or not it knew; knowing would make it worse, not better.
The agent, of bribery, and the company, of failing to prevent it. It cannot show adequate procedures.
Right. Two crimes, two people charged. The agent paid; the company had nothing in place to stop him, and nothing in place is the fourth crime.
Nobody. It happened abroad.
Not yet. The Act reaches a bribe paid anywhere in the world for a company that does business in the UK. The agent's country does not matter.
Picture a company with 500 sales agents abroad. Move what the company puts in place and see how many agents would pay a bribe this year. Made up to show the shape.
Would pay a bribe50 of 500, made up
Agents500 of 500, made up
What the company puts in place: Nothing
Nothing: 50 of 500. Agents paid a share of every sale they make, in places where a payment is expected, and nobody looking.
Would pay a bribe45 of 500, made up
Agents500 of 500, made up
What the company puts in place: A policy
A policy: 45. A rule that 45 agents walk past, because nobody told them it was theirs.
Would pay a bribe35 of 500, made up
Agents500 of 500, made up
What the company puts in place: A policy and training
Training as well: 35. Now every agent has heard the rule from a person.
Would pay a bribe10 of 500, made up
Agents500 of 500, made up
What the company puts in place: Checks on every agent before hiring as well
Checks before hiring as well: 10. The agents most likely to pay were never hired.
Would pay a bribe5 of 500, made up
Agents500 of 500, made up
What the company puts in place: All that, and the boss says it in public and reviews it yearly
The boss on the record, and a yearly review: 5. The rule is now the company's, and it is counted.
Which of the six did the most on its own?
The boss saying it in public.
Not yet. Ten to five: real, and last. The boss's word works on top of the checks, not instead of them.
Checking who you work with. Knowing the agent before hiring cut more than the policy and the training together.
Right. From 35 to 10, a cut of 25. The policy and the training took 50 to 35 between them, a cut of 15. The agents most likely to pay were never on the books.
The policy.
Not yet. Fifty to forty-five. A policy on its own is a rule 45 agents walk past, which is lesson 1 again.
Move the control.
UK£497 million
In all, about£671 million
In 2017 Rolls-Royce admitted its agents and some of its own staff had paid bribes in seven countries over more than twenty years, to sell engines. It did not go to trial. It signed a deal with the fraud prosecutor, approved by a judge: £497 million in the UK, about £671 million in all, and a promise to change.
Tap the one who commits the crime that only a company can commit.
Tap the part of the picture that answers it.
The agent
++
The company
++
The official
The company
Right. Failing to prevent bribery is a crime with only one kind of defendant. A person cannot fail to prevent; a company can, and the defence is the six things.
The agent
Not yet. The agent commits the first crime, giving a bribe, which a person commits. The fourth crime is about what the company around him did not do.
The official
Not yet. The official commits the second crime, taking a bribe. The third, paying a foreign official, belongs to whoever pays him. Neither is the one only a company can commit.
A coffeeat a site visit
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A kitchenfree, at home
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The council's register
A council officer picks which builder repairs the schools. Builder A buys her a coffee at a site visit. Builder B fits her a new kitchen at home, free. The council has a gifts policy, training and a register. Which is true?
The kitchen is a bribe. If she takes it, she and builder B are guilty, and the council's rules do not make her innocent.
Right. A free kitchen to the one person choosing the builder is asking for something. The fourth crime sits with builder B, whose people paid it for the firm. The council's policy and register do not make her innocent; they are what she broke.
Neither. The council has a policy, so nothing that happens is a crime.
Not yet. The council's policy does nothing for the officer who took the kitchen, who is guilty of taking a bribe herself. And the fourth crime belongs to builder B, whose people paid it.
Both are bribes. Any gift to a decision-maker is.
Not yet. The Act's own guidance says reasonable hospitality is fine. A coffee at a site visit asks nothing of anybody.
Lesson complete
A bribe bends a job with something given; a conflict bends it with nothing. A company must show it tried.