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May 2011

How do you think the new Bribery Act could affect corporate hospitality?

Adam Findlay, Proprietor Original 106

Our radio station is very active in the arena of corporate hospitality and we regard it as vital to our on-going client relationships, I don’t think the Act will have any impact on either our approach or view to this.

In the next few months we will be taking around 30 clients to Perth races, nearly 40 to the July Formula One race meet using our private aircraft from Aberdeen and my Dundee radio station recently entertained over 50 clients at a Jute, Jam And Jalfrezi evening celebrating Dundee orange marmalade. I can’t see any company agreeing to the suggestion that corporate hospitality is ‘bribery’ which is a very emotive word. I believe corporate hospitality is designed to enhance and improve relations with suppliers and clients and presumably the Bribery Act is trying to target direct bribery. However, the risk in all this is a sledge hammer to a nut where we harm rewards and incentives and restrict the flow and natural channels of business with yet another draconian ill conceived ‘rule.’

Andrew Stuart, Managing Director, Clark Integrated Technologies

At Clark, we host quite a number of corporate hospitality events, such as lunches, rounds of golf or trips to the football and we are confident the new law will not have any direct impact on us. We use these events as a good way of building stronger relationships with existing and potential clients in a relaxed atmosphere.

We would hate to think we were losing out on business because competitors were ‘bribing’ potential clients and we welcome any legislation which ensures a level playing field when it comes to retaining or securing new business.

We are confident that the hospitality we provide falls well within the permissible guidelines but will, of course, be taking advice to ensure that we maintain the ethical standards which are core to our business.

Paul East, Chief Commercial Officer, Wings Travel Managemen

Wings has never been heavily involved in corporate entertaining, however when we do arrange an event, our core focus is to use the opportunity to understand our clients and their industries so that we can adapt our service proposition to benefit them. With that said, we have been following the developments of the act and the latest amendments and feel the guidelines are now clearer to work to.

One key change we are implementing is the introduction of an ‘independent team’ to review all events prior to them taking place. The independent team will be created from a selection of key people, ranging from our non executive directors through to our legal representation.

Sam Eason, Managing Director of H1 Healthcare

There has been a lot of debate about the new procedures and processes that might have to be put in place because of the new Bribery Act. My hope is that common sense will prevail over the implementation of the rules and clear guidelines will ensure that companies, like ourselves, will not be overburdened with yet more red-tape. There’s no doubt that every company will have to look at their own procedures very carefully and examine how their particular risk assessment reviews are structured. I can see that we may all need new training programmes but in general, clarity of process should protect us.