Consulting engineer is ‘anti-bribery certified’

Accreditation body Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance (LRQA) assessed what procedures and systems the firm has in place to comply with the UK Bribery Act 2010, which makes “failure of a commercial organisation to prevent bribery” a criminal offence.

Historically, British consulting engineers have often found themselves in ethically murky waters when operating on certain international contracts, with ‘agency fees’ and ‘commissions’ often apparently having to be paid to influential third parties.

Mott MacDonald chairman Keith Howells said: “Mott MacDonald over the years has developed a rigorous approach to the prevention of bribery and corruption. Standing firm on this most important of issues will continue to serve the best interests of Mott MacDonald, our customers and the societies in which we operate. To ensure we maintain the highest of standards, formal requirements for compliance have been introduced into our management system, and we are very pleased that these have now been assessed by LRQA as meeting the requirements of the BS10500 standard.”

Richard Sadler, chief executive of Lloyd’s Register, said: “We are delighted that Mott MacDonald has become an early adopter of this best practice standard. By seeking independent certification of its ethical suite of processes, it is sending a clear signal of its determination to be entirely transparent throughout all business operations.

“With the introduction of the UK Bribery Act, ignorance is no defence. Organisations with a robust anti-bribery management system will have processes in place to be able to demonstrate compliance with the Act to their stakeholders. BS 10500 certification by a third party – such as LRQA – will naturally give additional credibility,” he concluded.

Mott MacDonald’s BS10500 certification covers the firm’s work in the transportation, energy, water, buildings, environment and industry sectors. It will be applying to extend certification to the other sectors in which it operates by the end of 2013.

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