Accountants must be at the forefront of the fight against domestic and international corruption, say leading financial crime experts.
Accountancy Age, 21 May 2001
But the accountancy profession was warned it could not relax despite government delays in implementing anti-corruption legislation in the UK.
Graham Rodmell, a director of Transparency International, said: 'The OECD Convention [on bribery of foreign officials] is affecting attitudes worldwide to corruption in trade and investment - professional advisers with respectable and responsible clients need to be sensitive to the dynamics of this situation and anticipate the consequences.'
Under the OECD convention, signatories are required to make the bribery of foreign officials a criminal offence and promote the highest professional standards of external auditing and internal controls.
Rodmell and other experts, including Jean Pierre Mean from Societe Generale de Surveillance, was speaking at an ICAEW seminar on corruption.
He warned accountants not to be complacent while the UK government slowed down the introduction of legislation.
Rodmell said: 'Legislation is only delayed. The pressure on the government from the OECD and especially the G7 states will be irresistible.'
He added: 'It is time to engage in the debate to find the best way forward in the fight against corruption and money laundering in international business.'
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