Australia: From 8 September 2024 your company could face criminal liability if it cannot prove that it had adequate procedures to prevent foreign bribery

30 Aug 2024    1 minute read

In brief

The Attorney-General has this week published its final guidance on adequate procedures to prevent the commission of foreign bribery (available here). The guidance follows the passage of the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Combatting Foreign Bribery) Act 2024 earlier this year which introduced the new offence of failing to prevent foreign bribery, under which companies can be held directly criminally liable for the foreign bribery activities of their employees, external contractors, agents and subsidiaries, unless the company can demonstrate it had adequate procedures in place to prevent the bribery. You can read more about the new laws in our previous alerts here. 

Contents

The final guidance on adequate procedures is primarily in the same form as the draft guidance the Attorney-General published for public consultation in April 2024, although some amendments have been made including:

  • Clarifying that self-reporting is not part of the requirement for adequate procedures but should still be considered if actual or suspected instances of foreign bribery are identified.
  • Providing further examples of pro-compliance conduct.
  • Providing further examples of third-party red flags.

The guidance comes as the new failure to prevent foreign bribery offence commences from 8 September 2024. Companies should carefully review the guidance to ensure their anti-bribery controls are adequate, including whether risk assessment and due diligence procedures are fit for purpose.

Baker McKenzie will be providing a webinar to assist companies in preparing for the new laws, utilising the experiences from our offices in other jurisdictions which have had similar regimes in place for several years. Please register your interest for the webinar here and include any topics or questions you would like covered.

Contact Information
Georgie Farrant
Partner
Sydney
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georgie.farrant@bakermckenzie.com
Gareth Austin
Associate
Sydney
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gareth.austin@bakermckenzie.com
Hank Jong
Associate
Sydney
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hank.jong@bakermckenzie.com

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