Compliance i inne mechanizmy zapobiegania korupcji

Corruption has accompanied humanity for a long time. Ever since the institutions organising social life came into being, certain individuals have attempted to gain an advantage in a way that violates the generally accepted rules, in breach of principles. For a long time, the states within which these institutions functioned have also taken measures to eliminate this undesirable phenomenon. These measures were twofold – repressive and preventive. The principal instrument of repression when corrupt behaviour was detected were the penalties provided for in criminal law. Preventive activities consisted of educational activities, raising awareness of the harmfulness of corruption.

Compliance programmes began to be set up by businesses in the United States as legal risks arising from doing business increased. In general, the most significant legal risks for organisations are related to liability of a punitive nature. Chronologically, the first to develop was the criminal liability of individuals. The second form of liability is the liability of collective entities. The emergence of the liability of legal persons for criminal acts committed on their behalf marked a turning point in the fight against economic crime. Indeed, the sanctions applied to legal persons, especially in the USA, were severe in nature. At some point, managers of legal entities realised that they had no real ability to control the behaviour of their employees at all times – even though they would be held responsible should any of them engage in illegal activity. It was therefore the managers, on behalf of themselves and the companies they managed, who were interested in developing tools that would protect them from allegations of illegal activity.

Compliance is a response to their demand in this regard – an exculpatory tool to reduce or even completely absolve themselves of liability. In a legal context, the concept of compliance refers to the process of creating, adopting and enforcing standards (rules and procedures) within an organisation that ensure that its activities comply with the law. The main objective of this process is to achieve a state of compliance of the organisation’s functioning with the provisions of the applicable positive law, in particular labour law, financial law, environmental law, as well as repressive law, especially criminal law.

The starting point for the considerations in this book are two theses. Firstly, it should be noted that the compliance norms within a given organisation (company) create a normative system (called a compliance programme or policy), which functions as a preventive tool aimed at deterring potential offenders and the possible avoidance of liability by a given organisation, as well as a repressive tool against individuals, in the event that irregularities are found to have already been committed. Viewing compliance as a normative system allows one to see its complexity, as well as its relevance to and impact on the lives of the addressees of the norms, comparable to the impact of state law norms.

The second thesis presented in this book is that preventive mechanisms, especially compliance programmes, are useful in preventing corruption. For there is no doubt that corruption should be dealt with like a disease afflicting society – prevention is better than cure.

This book analyses only compliance in the context of corruption, as an instrument for avoiding liability of natural and legal persons for committing one of the corrupt acts penalised in Poland. In addition, the considerations were enriched by an analysis of two other instruments for preventing corruption, namely the system of reporting fraud and protection of whistleblowers, and registers of benefits. These mechanisms complement compliance programmes in the public sector, introducing transparency that leads to a reduction in corruption.

Autors: Celina Nowak, Robert Lizak
Reviewer: Dr Konrad Buczkowski
ISBN: 978-83-66300-60-6 (książka)
e-ISBN: 978-83-66300-61-3 (ebook)
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.13769406
Pages: 238