NEWS

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23-02-2018

 

Publication of the recommendations of the French Anticorruption Agency

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Lhe recommendations of the French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA) intended to help legal persons governed by public and private law to prevent and detect acts of corruption, influence peddling, misappropriation, illegal taking of embezzlement of public funds and favoritism were published in the Official Journal on December 22, 2017.

You can access the full text of the recommendations by following the link below :

https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000036246476

 

Indeed, since June 1, 2017, pursuant to Article 17 of Law No. 2016-1691 on transparency, the fight against corruption and the modernization of economic life, known as "_cc781905-5cde- 3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_Loi Sapin II ”, companies employing at least 500 employees and whose turnover or consolidated turnover exceeds 100 million euros and those belonging to a group of companies meeting these criteria are required to set up a "  anticorruption plan " comprising the following 8 measures:

 

1. A code of conduct defining prohibited behavior which is intended to be part of the company's internal regulations;

 

2. An internal alert system intended to allow the collection of reports from employees relating to the existence of conduct or situations contrary to the company's code of conduct;

 

3. A regularly updated risk map intended to identify the risks of exposure of the company to external solicitations for the purposes of corruption ;

 

4.Procedures for assessing the situation of customers, first-tier suppliers and intermediaries with regard to risk mapping;

 

5.Accounting control procedures, internal or external, intended to ensure that the books, registers and accounts are not used to hide acts of corruption or influence peddling.

 

6. A training system for managers and staff most exposed to these risks;

 

7. An appropriate disciplinary system allowing employees to be sanctioned in the event of violation of the code of conduct;

 

8.An internal control and evaluation system for the measures implemented.

 

The AFA's recommendations therefore create a French anti-corruption benchmark and are intended to help public and private players put in place tools to prevent and detect acts of corruption or influence peddling.

 

The AFA was established to monitor the implementation of these measures and recently published on its website a " Charter of the rights and duties of stakeholders in control_cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b- 136bad5cf58d_" as well as a " practical sheet relating to the scope of the controls provided for by article 17 of law n°2016-1691 of December 9, 2016 relating to transparency, the fight against corruption and the modernization of economic life ". (available at the following url :https://www.economie.gouv.fr/afa).

 

Without waiting for the result of the public consultation on the draft recommendations, the AFA announced on October 10, 2017 that it had launched the first checks on the application of " plan anticorruption_cc781905-5cde-3194- bb3b-136bad5cf58d_”.

 

When it finds a breach of the Sapin II Law, the AFA can in theory issue warnings to company representatives, but also impose administrative fines of up to 200,000 euros for natural persons and 1,000,000 euros. euros for legal persons. The AFA can even make its sanctions public.

 

That said, the AFA reminds that its recommendations must be declined according to the organization and taking into account a mapping of the risks specific to each actor so that each actor will have to adopt an individualized approach to ensure compliance. to the Sapin II Law.

 

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Roland Rinaldo, lawyer, Cabinet Artlex Nantes

 

Opinion on the recommendations of the French Anticorruption Agency (AFA), Official Journal of December 22, 2017, Law No. 2016-1691 of December 9, 2016, Sapin II Law, anti-corruption guidelines