Corruption and Bribery Act 2011: Legislation, Enforcement Bodies, and Liabilities

CORRUPTION

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION:...............................................................................................................................3
Legislation or code of conduct:............................................................................................................3
Enforcement bodies:.............................................................................................................................4
Conclusion:...........................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES:....................................................................................................................................6
PART B CPD PLAN.........................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION:
Practice of corruption not only has bearing on social and political structure but also affects
economic prosperity of a nation. It has existed ever since the dawn of humanity in one form or
another. Corrupt practices erodes trust in democratic establishments,causes stagnation in economic
system, and breeds criminal sentimentality into society as a whole. Corrupt practices can have in its
ambit suppressing the justice system, impediments in election process, executives extorting bribes
from citizens.
Code of conduct:
Any criminal activity committed subsequently to enactment of bribery act 2011 is
punishable in accordance with provisions of the above Act. However crimes committed before the
enactment fall within the scope of prevention of corruption Act 1916 and 1906 and common law
crime of bribing. (Sanseverino,2021)Under the new law enacted by parliament of UK. Bribery
connotes providing advantages(by giving money or other benefits) to a person to induce them for
performing their obligations and duties in a manner which is not proper, or rewarding a person for
improper acts done in past. It is crucial to note that monetary or other benefit does not actually need
to exchanged to establish the offence merely promising to conduct duties in a manner which is not
proper can constitute an offence. The bribery Act makes provision for four distinct offences Firstly
the person who gives bribes, secondly the person who is being paid off, thirdly bribes given to
people working for foreign governments and lastly a private entity failing to take reasonable steps
for prevention of bribery.(Cathcart, 2019)
It is not necessary that whether or not the person wilfully not fulfilling obligations is in
public domain or private domain. However it needs to be established that the person working in
private domain worked on something which provides utility to the public. The act not being proper
means that the person has breached code of conduct which needed to be completed in good faith
whilst being impartial. Even though no money or other benefit may have been accrued to the person
involved a mere promise may be constituted as crime. Moreover even though a person may not
directly involve himself in the whole transaction and act through an intermediary, they still are
liable to punished under bribery act.
There are specific provision such as section 6 of bribery Act which deal with providing
bribes to foreign officials as the phenomenon of corruption not only affects UK domestically but
also sours the relationships with foreign countries.
According to section 7 of bribery Act companies are liable if they can't full fill their lawful
duty to take actions to prevent bribery from its members. However they may evade such liability if
they can show that they took reasonably foreseeable steps and established proper procedures