Bribery and Corporate Hospitality: Legal Implications and Preventive Measures

Board Room
Presentation

Contents
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..............................................................................................................................................3
If E Ltd were to arrange the symposium similar to that organized before the pandemic by H Ltd,
whether E Ltd be criminally liable for bribery.........................................................................................3
What steps E Ltd must consider taking as an organization to prevent any possible future allegations of
bribery.....................................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
The bribery can be defined as giving, offering soliciting or receiving any item which has
the value in order to influence actions of official or some other person who is in charge of the
public or the legal duty. Bribery is basically corrupt solicitation, transfer or acceptance of the
value in exchange for the official action. It is the unethical as well as illegal gift or the lobbying
effort which is bestowed in order to influence the conduct of recipient. It may be goods, money,
property, rights in action, emolument, advantage, and other actions. It is the corrupt or the
criminal activity wherein an entity offers something of the value to the public official or
corporate in the exchange of cooperation in influencing the process of decision making (Hock,
2019). This report shall cover the whether providing lavish corporate hospitality amounts to
bribery and what steps can company take in order to avoid allegation of bribery.
MAIN BODY
If E Ltd were to arrange the symposium similar to that organized before the pandemic by H Ltd,
whether E Ltd be criminally liable for bribery.
The Bribery Act in UK was passed in the year 2010 in order to address the perceived lack
of the commitment to the anti- bribery law and to enhance the coordination among various
investigative bodies that has been tasked to address such issues. There are mainly four types of
offences under the Bribery Act, 2010 which includes the following-
 Promising, offering or giving bribe to other person (Section 1).
 Agreeing, requesting to accept or receive the bribe from other person (Section 2).
 Giving bribe to the foreign public official (Section 6)
 The corporate offence of failing to avoid bribery (Section 7) (Grasso, 2017).
Hospitality, expenses and gifts are vulnerable to be used for the offence of bribery. These
may be used as bribes but they pave also ways for bribery by entrapping the person. These
may be used to maintain and build the relationships during the bribery scheme. Providing
hospitality gifts and the travel expenses are considered as high areas of risk for bribery. The
companies are subject to trouble in order to manage the laws which do not define any
boundaries for the hospitality and gifts.