The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) was passed in 1977 as an amendment to the 1934 Securities Exchange Act. Its purpose is to provide fines for those parties that engage in corrupt practices such as bribes made to foreign officials. The act defines certain standards that relate to controls that should be in place for accounting procedures. These procedures will be checked when management submit their accounts to external audit controls.
Compliance with FCPA has seen a downward trend as organisations feel the pressure to push through joint ventures and agency agreements especially at the expense of losing an attractive foreign investment or threatening the loss or a new potential partner. Many foreign countries think compliance insults their sovereignty and their own legal system.
The FCPA and other law states you need to comply and the single most difficult aspect of FCPA compliance is consistence. If you aren’t willing to comply and constantly ensure your organisation is following procedure then there are penalties that the organisation can be hit with, if you aren’t consistent then you are leaving the business open to and increasing the chance of large fines being imposed. Each US business needs to comply with the act ensuring they have a strict compliance and ethics programme set up which is promoted and enforced throughout the organisation.
If an organisation does find itself in hot water then they may get a greatly reduced penalty of up to 95% if they are able to prove a effective compliance programme in place. The key is consistency so should they be unable to show they have been consistent then the full fine will be due.
To ensure your organisation continues to comply then ensure your compliance programme is up to date with current legislation and any new updates to the act. It is important employees are aware of compliance procedures were appropriate. A cocky new salesman might not bother with compliance training and administrative work as he or she deems it as not necessary. They are then likely to block, ignore or damage compliance efforts linked to a new overseas partner.
Remember consistence is the key, ensure you keep up to date and attend industry related conferences which will provide you with the latest developments as well as give you the opportunity to network. Conferences such as the
Marcus Evans scam and compliance conferences will do wonders for your business.
