Recent corruption investigations in Brazil, China and Mexico have highlighted the risks confronted by multinational companies operating in a global enforcement environment. Governments throughout the world are demanding that companies have effective compliance programs that prevent, detect and respond appropriately to potential corruption.
While standards of compliance are often expressed differently among jurisdictions — such as the guidance issued under the U.S. Federal Sentencing Guidelines and the U.K. Bribery Act — the conduct that governments expect is increasingly uniform and consistent across the world. To satisfy these converging expectations, companies must design and implement programs that can be applied anywhere to manage risk. The place to start is to thoroughly understand the risk environment. Because all companies face limitations to the resources they can devote to the task, they must instill an overall culture of compliance but focus on the areas of greatest operational risk. Some industries by nature have governments as customers and face significant corruption risks associated with direct commercial dealings with those customers. Other industries are subject to heavy government regulation and individual government officials have significant influence on the company’s ability to conduct business. Finally, as a practical matter, virtually all companies conduct business in multiple countries and confront daily issues of moving goods across borders and obtaining permits and other approvals. All of these are touch points where corrupt acts can and often do arise.
