A quarter of big businesses worldwide have experienced at least one incident of bribery or corruption in the last two years, potentially putting executives at risk of fines or prison terms, according to a survey published by Ernst & Young this week.


Researchers quizzed 1,186 business leaders - including heads of legal - in large organisations across 33 countries between November 2007 and February this year.



Of all UK respondents, 13% said their company had experienced at least one incident, compared with 6% in Germany and 6% in France. The global average was 24%.



John Smart, UK head of fraud investigation at Ernst & Young, said while more than half of respondents are increasing training, knowledge of anti-corruption legislation is 'patchy'.



Despite the US taking a more aggressive approach to enforcing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), 84% of all respondents claimed to know 'little to nothing' about it - compared to 66% in the UK.



Smart said: 'It is worryingly clear that companies subject to anti-bribery legislation do not fully understand the details of their [compliance] requirements.'



Jonathan Rayner