The FINANCIAL — The Advisory Services practice of Grant Thornton LLP has created an alert to help American companies that conduct business in the UK understand the UK Bribery Act (the Act) and the impact it will have on their business.
In addition, the alert identifies three other areas of the Act that may be of interest to U.S. companies in their preparation for the legislation’s enactment: corporate entertainment and promotional expenditures, facilitation payments and commercial bribery.
Grant Thornton Forensic & Litigation Principal and the firm's Anti-Corruption and Investigations Leader Bill Olsen stated that “It is important to note that unlike the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the UK Bribery Act applies to all bribery not just bribery of foreign government officials, according to the company.
“U.S. companies that do business in the UK –from those registered in the UK to those that have any part of its operations in the UK to those that just employ UK citizens – will need to evaluate their current compliance programs and make sure that they also comply with the new rules that will be going into effect shortly or else face the consequences,” concluded Olsen.
“From a governance, risk and compliance viewpoint, global organizations doing business in the UK need to be on top of the changes related to this Act and helping to educate management and audit committees on this,” said Warren Stippich, Advisory Services partner and Grant Thornton’s Governance, Risk and Compliance solution leader. “The penalties for not addressing the compliance items in the Act could be significant.”
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