How Policies Can Ensure Your Organization Prevents Bribery & Corruption

Does your organization have an effective policy management framework to protect itself from the risk of bribery and corruption? Bribery and corruption can affect all organizations and institutions in every region of the world, whether wealthy or not. It can plague an entire country with instability and inequality, contributing to the erosion of trust and order, and your organizations has to work to reduce this risk.

Bribery and corruption are a major challenge and obstacle for organizations globally. Nearly a quarter of organizations have been subject to bribery and corruption in the last three years, according to PwC's Global Economic Crime Survey. Recently there has been an uptick in bribery and corruption charges in the U.S. and UK, and your organization needs to ensure that:

• Policies are updated. Your organization needs to ensure that that their policy framework surrounding bribery and corruption is completely up to date with changes in the business, regulatory environment, and risk landscape and addresses current risks that are relevant.
• A culture of ethics is embedded throughout the organization. Your organization needs to establish ground rules and create a culture of compliance and ethics by communicating policies and effectively training employees on how to stay compliant and act with integrity by outlining whistleblowing procedures and red flags to watch out for.
• Effective Reporting. Any employee that witnesses or suspects a potential case of corruption and bribery needs to know how and to whom to report it. Your organizations policy management framework needs to provide clear channels of reporting incidents.

Bribery is a very significant problem that can result in huge fines for your organization and individuals - potentially even imprisonment. Your organization needs to protect itself against this risk and implement an effective policy management framework to ensure that your organization acts with integrity, remains compliant, and manages risk.

The Policy Management Capability Model is an effective resource to leverage policies to protect your organization. A well-documented set of policies and training helps the organization to prevent compliance violations, manage risks, and reduces management time and effort.