Question
Question 11 of 15 An agent for a local construction firm agrees a contract with a foreign company. An official who works for the foreign government is blocking the necessary licences. The official demands that the agent pays him a facilitation fee, in cash, to grant the licences. The agent paid the fee without the knowledge of the construction firm who is now being investigated. What best describes this situation? If the agent is not one of the company's employees they cannot be prosecuted. The company could be prosecuted for failing to prevent bribery. They cannot be prosecuted if the payment was made outside of the local region. If the company was unaware of the payment it cannot be prosecuted.
Answer
4.4
(192 Votes)
Arnold
Elite · Tutor for 8 years
Answer
B
Explanation
In this scenario, the concept of corporate liability for bribery is in focus. Especially, under the UK's Bribery Act 2010, failure of commercial organizations to prevent bribery means that an organization could be liable for activities of a person who provides services for them, like an agent, without requiring any proof of the illicit payment arrangement. So, even if a company claims to unaware of acts of bribery carried out on its behalf, they can still be penalized under the act. This legislation takes a remarkably tough on failure to prevent bribery, and isn't affected by whether the agent was officially a company employee, not even where the illegal payment was made. Accordingly, the statement ringing true to this provision of the law is: 'The company could be prosecuted for failing to prevent bribery.'