Agenda item

Consideration was given to a report presented by Richard Waller, Senior Manager – Legal and Electoral Services, which set out how the Bribery Act, 2010 came into force on 1st July, 2011 and consolidated the law on bribery.

It replaced the offences at common law and under the Prevention of Corruption Acts 1889 – 1916 with two general offences: the first dealt with bribery and the second deal5 with being bribed. The basis of a bribe was an intention to induce improper conduct. 

The Bribery Act was not concerned with fraud, theft, books and record offences, Companies Act offences, money laundering offences or competition law. 

The report detailed how a bribe had three elements: (i) that the person making the payment made it to the agent of the other person with whom he was dealing; (ii) that he made it to that person knowing that that person was acting as the agent of the other person with whom he was dealing; and (iii) that he failed to disclose to the other person with whom he was dealing that he had made that payment to the person whom he knows to be the other person's agent. 

The report set out detail relating to:-

·              Offences.

·              Active and Passive Bribes.

·              Failure to Prevent a Bribe.

·              Guidance.

·              Rotherham Borough Council – Measures to Prevent Incidents.

The Committee took account of the report’s detail and asked if, in order to monitor and control the interests of the Council, consideration had been given to a register of officers’ interests and were informed that the Officers’ Code of Conduct directed employees to record any gift, received or offered, in a Gifts and Hospitality Book, to be held and monitored by each directorate.  However, as a general rule all gifts and other benefits must be refused, similarly for personal interests employees must declare to their Director any financial and non-financial interests that may bring about conflict with the Authority's interests.  All such declarations should be recorded in Service’s registers of interests.

The Committee considered whether it was appropriate for them to request sight of the registers as per their request in relation to Elected Members especially as some Elected Members relied heavily on officers for advice.

The Monitoring Officer advised the Committee that there were a number of policies and procedures currently in place that governed the conduct of employees and that the Committee’s Terms of Reference, although broad, did not currently extend to misconduct by officers.  He also pointed out that there was an additional consideration in that employees of the Council had the usual employment rights and that there were a number of Council employment policies and procedures which would be triggered were an allegation of misconduct to be made. 

The Committee were in favour of reserving their request in relation to the inspection of registers for officers, but suggested that this be revisited when the details of the Localism Bill were published.  This would give the Committee the opportunity to revisit the Terms of Reference and the Code of Conduct at a later stage and give consideration at that point as to whether to include officers’ interests.

Resolved:-  (1)  That the report be received and the contents noted.

(2)  That the Monitoring Officer and Internal Audit Manager devise and implement a joint programme of work to refresh and update Council documents and procedures in light of the Bribery Act, 2010 and guidance on the Act published by the Secretary of State for Justice. 

(3)  That this report be referred to the Audit Committee for information.

(4)  That the Monitoring Officer be asked to investigate the possibility of including officers’ interests in the Terms of Reference once the details of the Localism Bill were published.