SA is one of 8 countries named as corruption hotspots

South Africa is one of eight countries named as the worst in Africa for corruption.

ENSafrica found in a survey that incidents of bribery have increased‚ but so has general awareness of anti-bribery compliance among African organisations.

Corruption hot spots are Angola‚ the Democratic Republic of Congo‚ Ghana‚ Kenya‚ Mozambique‚ Nigeria‚ South Africa and Uganda.

ENSafrica said 24% of organisations have experienced an incident of bribery or corruption in the past 24 months‚ an increase of 4% since 2013‚ with 5% experiencing five or more incidents within the last 24 months.

Just over 90% of organisations surveyed have a policy prohibiting bribes‚ 52% have an established anti-bribery compliance programme and 43% have conducted a detailed anti-bribery risk assessment of their bribery risks

A total of 88 organisations across Africa‚ including in Mauritius‚ participated in the survey. The survey was designed to gauge perceptions regarding an organisation’s anti-corruption compliance commitment to observing local and global requirements and to see how these compliance processes compare to generally accepted anti-corruption compliance best practice.

Other key findings included:

•  68% of those surveyed believe that third-party business partners pose the greatest source of bribery risk to their organisations
•  Only 36% of organisations surveyed are confident that they have proportionate procedures to mitigate bribery risks; or believe they are well prepared to respond to the threat of an anti-bribery regulatory investigation
•  62% of organisations now conduct due diligence screening on third parties‚ an increase of 22% from 2013
• 40% of organisations have a dedicated anti-bribery training programme for their employees and 15% provide anti-bribery training to their business partners

“Having an effective anti-corruption programme is more important for companies today than ever before. Many companies are now recognising the potential reputational harm‚ economic costs‚ fines‚ penalties and potential criminal prosecution that bribery and corruption pose to their business‚” ENSafrica said in a statement on the survey.

South African authorities were commended for having introduced onerous anti-corruption requirements under the Companies Act and Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act which imposes strict reporting requirements on those holding positions of authority.

“Fewer organisations feel they are highly exposed to bribery in Africa (17% as opposed to 50% in 2013)‚ which may be attributed to organisations embracing the challenges of anti-bribery compliance and starting to build workable compliance programmes that mitigate bribery risks‚” the company said.

Companies with top-level commitment reported fewer incidents of bribery as opposed to those without‚ it added.