Most organizations engage with hundreds, if not often thousands, of third party vendors, suppliers, agents and business partners, creating a daunting and ever-expanding scope of risk.

This risk arises from:

1. the difficulty in efficiently and effectively vetting and managing these third parties; and,

2. liability created by the actions or compliance failures of these third parties when acting on behalf of the party who engaged them.

This is especially true in the anti-bribery and corruption area where third parties may expose the contracting party to Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) or UK Bribery Act liability if they provide bribes to government officials or other companies to obtain or retain business on behalf of the contracting company. Even with increasing awareness and high profile prosecutions of companies due to the unlawful conduct of third parties, many organizations are still not being proactive enough in taking actions to insulate themselves from third party compliance failures and the resulting damaging enforcement actions.