Significance of Training in Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
Sunday 13 May 2012 at 12:44 amThe U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) was primarily implemented to prevent companies and citizens of United States from paying bribe to foreign companies and individuals (government officials) just to set up or retain their business on foreign land. Prior to setting up your business, read the FCPA checklist carefully. In-depth knowledge of the act will help you to do business with a foreign company in an upright manner.
According to Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, it is a federal crime to bride any foreign official to get a business opportunity. Before doing business with a governmental department, official, consultant, distributor, supplier or sub-contractor, it is your duty to make sure that your business contact won’t ask for bribe at any point of time. Additionally, you should check whether the officials in the region or country in which you are intending to do business are known for asking for bribe or not.
FCPA is a federal law that stringently prohibits entrepreneurs from bribing in exchange for a business opportunity in a foreign land. All those companies that have business interests in foreign countries should essentially train their employees in FCPA. Proper training in FCPA will help your workforce to be vigilant especially while exploring business opportunities in third-world countries and emerging economies where bribery is quite prevalent.
The chief purpose of FCPA training program is to help the entrepreneurs understand what constitutes bribery in terms of the rules of the act. For instance, if an employee of your company takes a foreign official out for dinner solely to discuss the business proposition; it can be considered bribery under FCPA.
To avert all sorts of intricate problems, make FCPA training mandatory for all your employees who work overseas or interact with foreign clients. While taking the job interview to recruit new employees, business owners should frankly ask the candidate whether or not he has participated in FCPA training program.
To ensure that all the employees of your company adhere to the rules defined in FCPA stringently, formulate a reference manual. If you face any problem, take the help of an attorney, who specializes in FCPA. Several online training courses are also available. You can also contact the law department of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act to dispel all your doubts and apprehensions.