Corruption remains one of the key threats to sustainable business development. Corruption scandals demonstrate the disastrous consequences of corruption revelations for companies: multimillion dollar fines, criminal prosecutions of executives, reputational damage and loss of investor confidence.
In the context of globalization and increased regulatory control, companies face the need to implement effective anti-corruption mechanisms. Anti-corruption compliance is a key element of corporate governance aimed at minimizing legal, financial and reputational risks. Competent implementation of anti-corruption compliance contributes to the prevention of corruption offenses and supports the integrity of employee behavior. The presence of ethical conduct in the area of corruption ensures a positive business reputation both among counterparties and other organizations.
It should be noted that anti-corruption policy plays a key role in mitigating the legal entity’s liability or its absence for employees breaking the corruption law. When courts assess the guilt of company, the fact that the company has adopted exhaustive anti-corruption mechanisms is decisive. The Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation defines the anti-corruption policy as a set of interrelated principles, procedures and specific measures aimed at prevention and suppression of corruption offences in the activities of the company. Both the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Russian Ministry of Labor pay special attention to the need to adopt an anti-corruption policy and other documents regulating prevention and combating corruption in the company in the form of internal policies and procedures to ensure their mandatory implementation by all employees of the company.
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