Guidance on adequate procedures to prevent the commission of foreign bribery
The Crimes Legislation Amendment (Combatting Foreign Bribery) Act 2024 came into effect on 8 March 2024 and introduced a new corporate offence of failing to prevent foreign bribery. The legislation requires the Attorney-General to publish guidance material on what steps corporations can take to prevent an associate from bribing foreign public officials within 6 months.
In August 2024, we published the Guidance on adequate procedures to prevent the commission of foreign bribery.
It outlines the steps corporations can take to establish an effective anti-bribery compliance program and suggests types of controls to consider when implementing such a program.
The guidance sets out 6 elements to assist corporations in establishing ‘adequate procedures’:
| 1 | Fostering a control environment to prevent foreign bribery |
| 2 | Responsibilities of top-level management |
| 3 | Risk assessment |
| 4 | Communication and training |
| 5 | Reporting foreign bribery |
| 6 | Monitoring and review |
Public consultation
In preparing this guidance, we sought feedback from the public on 2 draft versions: