The Transparency, Anti-Corruption and Economic Modernisation Act 2016-1691 of 9 December 2016, known as the “Sapin 2” Act, created the French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA). The Agency has nationwide jurisdiction and is placed under the direct joint authority of the Minister of Justice and the Minister for the Budget. Its operations cover the whole of France’s territory.
Its mission is to implement public policy on preventing and detecting bribery, influence peddling, extortion by public officials, unlawful taking of interest, misappropriation of public funds and favouritism. Such offences are referred to using the umbrella terms “corruption” or “corruption offences”. Article 2 of the Act ensures that the Director of the Agency guarantees the independence necessary for its audit acti- vities.
TASKS
AFA’s tasks are:
- to help entities prevent and detect corruption through its advisory and audit activities;
- to participate in administrative coordination (drafting the National Multi-Year Plan to Fight Cor-ruption and helping French authorities to define their policy positions within international organisations);
- to centralise and disseminate information to help prevent and detect corruption.
ACTIONS
AFA is an anti-corruption public policy coordination body, an advisory structure and an administrative audit authority for public and private entities subject to compliance requirements. These roles make AFA a national leader in preven- ting and detecting corruption. AFA conducts two types of audits. The first type are audits conducted at AFA’s initiative2 on the existence, quality and effectiveness of the anti-corruption measures and procedures of public and private sector entities with 500 or more employees and revenues of more than €100m. The second type of audits are conducted on behalf of prosecutors or the Sanctions Committee to ensure implementation of administrative and court-ordered measures requiring a legal entity to implement a compliance programme. Such measures include administrative injunctions, deferred prosecu- tion agreements and supplementary penalties involving compliance remediation programmes. AFA is also responsible for monitoring enforcement of Act 68-678 of 26 July 1968 on the disclosure of economic, com- mercial, industrial, financial and technical documents and information to foreign individuals or entities (“blocking statute”) in response to the enforcement of foreign authorities’ rulings requiring a company with its registered office in France to submit to a compliance procedure for its internal procedures to prevent and detect corruption. AFA also works closely with the government entities concerned, such as the Economic Strategic Intelligence and Security Department (SISSE) to enforce the Act.
AFA’s support and advisory tasks have three main objectives:
- Facilitating understanding of corruption by monitoring legal developments and statistics, by supporting research work, conducting statistical surveys on entities’ maturity with regard to anti-corruption compliance and conducting a national corruption risk mapping exercise.
- Raising awareness of France’s anti-corruption framework, based on the Sapin 2 Act and its implementing decrees, along with the guidelines and guides posted to AFA’s website. AFA is working to achieve this objective with awareness-raising and training actions, as well as assistance and technical support for any individuals or entities in the public or private sector upon request. It also proposes and implements technical cooperation, advisory and support actions for foreign authorities.
- Performing administrative coordination tasks, working with the support of its oversight authorities to draw up the National Multi-Year Plan to Fight Corruption, and participating in the definition of the French authorities’ policy positions relating to AFA’s jurisdiction within international organisations.
