Policy Management: How it Can Improve Anti-Bribery and Corruption Standards

Bribery and corruption have been a growing issue for organizations as of late. With growing regulation regarding anti-bribery and corruption standards increasing throughout the United States and the U.K., organizations have been struggling to manage this looming threat.

Incidents of bribery and corruption can be detrimental to an organization, not only because of the fines imposed by regulatory bodies, but also because of the reputational damage incurred from corruption and bribery scandals being made known to the public. Organizations that are struggling to effectively mitigate the potential of bribery and corruption within their organization must turn to their policy management framework for the solution.

It might not always seem like it but policies are the heart of both the organization’s operations and values. Establishing effective policies can greatly enhance the capability of achieving goals and ensuring that critical operations are prioritized. Unfortunately, simply writing and distributing an initial set of policies is not an effective way of managing policies. Policy management is a continuous process that requires constant nurturing and adaptation. In order to achieve effective policy management to best mitigate corruption and bribery organizations needs to:

• Undertake constant revision. The world of business is constantly changing and with it so do its threats. A policy that may have been extremely effective last year could do little to nothing this year. Policies need constant revision to ensure that they are accurate and up to date with current regulatory standards and business operations.

‍

• Communicate code of conduct and obligations. It is pivotal that the organization as a whole has complete understanding of compliance obligations as well as established ethical values. Much of these obligations and values will be portrayed through policies. Organizations must ensure that they have effective means of communicating policies across the entire organization, as well as ensuring employees have complete access, effective training mechanisms, and ways of measuring overall understanding of these policies.

‍

• Report. Along with effectively communicating ethical values and obligations, organizations must also ensure that employees are aware and understand methods of reporting incidents. If an employee witnesses an incident of bribery or corruption, they need clear and understandable paths of reporting, and these avenues must be clearly defined throughout the policy management framework.

Bribery and corruption are a threat that will only grow in scale as time goes on. To stay ahead of the curve organizations must begin implementing an effective policy management framework to ensure that they are prepared for current and upcoming regulatory changes.

The business world is complex and full of risks, and oftentimes organizations put policy management, especially pertaining to bribery and corruption, on the back burner. However, failing to implement an effective anti-bribery and corruption framework can and will result in hefty fines, reputational damage, or even imprisonment. You cannot wait for this to happen to your organization to finally start doing something about it, use this as a wake-up call and begin establishing preventative measures to protect your organization from bribery and corruption

The DocTract Cloud Platform is an efficient, ready-to-use tool that is built by experts that know how to make the journey towards effective policy management easy for you and your organization. DocTract provides an unparalleled experience for organizations of all sizes and assists in building an optimal Policy Management System with transparent pricing and rapid implementation.

‍