“There is a need for a mechanism that allows a good strong ethical company that uncovers an isolated problem, and reports it to the authorities, to have a reasonable prospect of reaching a just settlement without necessarily being exposed to a criminal sanction,” said Robert Amaee of Covington & Burling, who stepped down in January as head of the U.K. anticorruption unit of the Serious Fraud Office.
In the United States, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is supported by the twin traditions of corporate self-reporting and criminal pleas, and bolstered by the nuclear threat of debarment from government contracts and licenses. The U.K. at last has a robust corruption act (which is required under the OECD antibribery convention of 1997). A severe debarment regime is imposed by the 2004 European Union directive on the procurement of government contracts, and the Serious Fraud Office issued guidance on self-reporting in 2009. A framework for corporate pleas is the missing leg.
