In Canada, many business leaders recognize the potential for significant reputational harm from public scandal; economic cost in the form of investigations, fines and penalties; and individual cost in the form of criminal prosecution. This is causing many Canadian companies to start to focus on assessing the risks to which they may be exposed and develop appropriate AB&C compliance programs.
Key findings from the Global Anti-Bribery and Corruption Survey 2011 indicate that, despite a greater awareness of the business and legal imperatives for well developed AB&C compliance programs among survey respondents, many compliance programs lack sufficient depth and breadth to effectively mitigate AB&C risk around the world.
The survey highlights include:
- One in three UK and US organizations does not perform an ABC risk assessment
- Two in five U.S. and UK organizations with written AB&C policies do not distribute them to agents, distributors, vendors, brokers, joint-venture partners or suppliers
- Three in five companies with such compliance programs that incorporate employee training do not require any third-party representatives to participate in the training
- Nearly one in four UK and one in three U.S. companies require training less than once a year
- Three in five companies do not exercise “right to audit clauses” in third party contracts.