Mergers and acquisitions are complex transactions that involve specific integrity risks, which can have significant financial, legal, and operational impacts if they were to materialize. It is therefore advisable that concerned companies conduct adequate checks before concluding these transactions. With a view to assisting companies in this process, the French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA) published a guide on anti-corruption due diligence for mergers and acquisitions.
France
The NCPA Practical Guidelines on Facilitation Payments
Facilitation payments are payments made to secure or expedite the performance of a routine governmental action to which the payer is in effect entitled. Qualified as a form of bribe in many jurisdictions, such payments are widely considered as detrimental to society as they undermine the rule of law and fair competition. The Network of Corruption Prevention Authorities (NCPA) released practical guidelines to help businesses address this key issue and thereby uphold public integrity in the countries where they operate.
Ethics guides – Documentation portal
This portal provides the user with ethics guides and guidance for asset and interests declarations.
Legal framework surrounding transparency in public life – Documentation portal
This page compiles the various laws and regulations which set the legal framework concerning the ethics of public officials and the regulation of lobbying.
Using artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the quality of lobbying declarations
The HATVP uses an algorithm to improve the quality of the declarations submitted by lobbyists on the lobbying register. When completing the “object” (understood as an objective pursued) of a declaration form for which lobbying actions were undertaken during the year, lobbyists are nudged to provide specific details. It must include the subject on which the lobbying action bore, the expected results and the public decision(s) targeted by the activities concerned.
Lobbying register
This register is a searchable database of lobbyists by categories such as the name of organisations, clients, industry or field of activity.