Guidelines on bribery

Background

The public expects decisions taken at Uppsala University to be taken on objective grounds and without irrelevant considerations. Employees[1]i of Uppsala University have a responsibility to uphold requirements relating to objectivity and impartiality during their appointment. Regulations regarding the giving and taking of bribes aim to ensure that confidence in employees’ impartiality is maintained. Any employee receiving gifts and benefits linked to their position at the University runs a risk of corruption. These guidelines aim to clarify the rules surrounding bribes and offer guidance to employees to prevent bribery occurring at Uppsala University.

Bribery

Legislation

The giving and receiving of bribes is a crime. Relevant regulations can be found in Chapter 10 of the Swedish Penal Code. Bribery is not committed by the University but by individuals. It is therefore the individual who is held responsible for a case of bribery.

The crime of taking a bribe is committed when an employee or contractor receives, approves a promise concerning, or requests an undue advantage in exchange for carrying out their duties or tasks.

The giving of bribes entails the supply, promise or offer of an undue advantage to an employee or contractor. To be considered a bribe, the advantage (for example a gift or a reward) must be undue. The legislation has not defined the boundaries of what constitutes an ‘undue’ advantage. An overall assessment of the circumstances is made for each individual case during judicial proceedings. The Public Employment Act contains regulations specifying that the employer must report any individual for prosecution who is reasonably suspected to have dealt in bribery.

Permission or knowledge on the part of a manager or other party

No person is authorised to allow an employee to accept an advantage that could objectively be seen as a bribe. Criminal liability always lies exclusively with the person who received the bribe.

General criteria

Advantages can take a wide variety of forms. The nature of the advantage does not determine whether a particular advantage is undue or not; instead it is the value the advantage has to the recipient and whether it can be assumed to influence that recipient and thus the conduct of their professional duties. Whether an advantage is considered to be undue or not depends on the circumstances of the individual case, how strongly linked the advantage and the exercise of professional duties are, the value of the advantage, its nature and what the relationship is between the parties. The position of the recipient and their susceptibility to influence should be particularly noted. The assessment must be made on objective grounds.

One aspect to note is whether a personal friendship between the donor and recipient means that a gift may have been given for other reasons than to influence the recipient’s conduct at work. The line separating gifts given in the context of an employee’s private life and their professional life can be difficult to identify at times. The employee should therefore be particularly careful about the purpose of such gifts, that is, whether they may be intended to influence the exercise of professional duties.

Groups whose integrity is particularly sensitive at the University

Employees whose work duties involve the exercise of official authority (for example examination and admissions), employees who work within the area of procurement, and employees who have contact with suppliers, for example consultants, are particularly exposed at the University. Particularly strict requirements are therefore placed on such employees in relation to receiving or being promised gifts. Even symbolic gifts can constitute bribes in these categories.

Undue and due advantages

Questions that employees should ask themselves when something is offered by an external party

Below are a number of questions that employees should ask themselves when offered a gift from an external party, thus helping to determine whether the offer is acceptable or not.

• Why am I being offered this advantage?
• Is the advantage high in value?
• Is this advantage regularly offered to many others?
• Is there a risk I could be influenced in my duties?
• Is there a risk that public confidence in the University could be damaged?

The mere existence of a risk that the aim of the advantage is to influence the professional duties of the employee or that the employee will de facto be influenced in their duties comprises sufficient grounds for declining the offer.

Offers of gifts, discounts, trips, conferences, leisure activities and services are some of the typical situations to which employees should give extra thought, as such offers are often considered undue.

A purely symbolic gift such as a pen etc. will usually be permitted.

Examples of advantages that are never permitted

Examples of an undue advantage include

• gifts before or after examinations or decisions;
• cash, gift cards or another form of value such as securities and other share or bond certificates;
• loans not granted at market rates or offered on particularly attractive terms;
• purchase consideration, credit, amortisation or interest rate concessions;
• hidden – that is, not approved by the employee’s employer – or irregular purchase discounts, provision and bonus arrangements and kickbacks;
• unreported deliveries of products or services from the employer’s supplier, e.g. building materials or transport and skilled services or office materials;
• vehicles, boats, holiday homes or other types of property being made available for private use;
• fully or partially paid leisure trips or holidays;
• bonus arrangements such as hotel stays and flights if the bonus is given to the employee and not the employer;
• invitations to parties and dinners that are not linked to work duties or the University’s activities; and
• tickets to theatre performances, sporting events, cultural events and similar.

Sporting events, social activities, leisure activities or similar are not acceptable if they are separate

(that is, they are not part of the employee’s work duties) from work and the University’s activities. However, simple social activities such as musical events may be arranged in connection with the

University’s activities and meetings, as long as they are secondary to both the activities and meetings.

Examples of advantages that are normally permitted

The following example of advantages should not be interpreted as always being permitted. The employee must make their own assessment in each individual case.

Advantages normally permitted are those included as a natural part of the recipient’s exercising of their professional duties, for example:

• Working meals of an everyday nature in connection with meetings;
• Marks of attention of milestone birthdays and other important personal days or in cases of illness, on the condition that the marks of attention are moderate in relation to the circumstances of the individual case;
• Small samples and promotional items provided in connection with visits to companies or comparable arrangements;
• Ornaments that lack material market value and comparable moderate souvenirs given to guests, for example for corporate anniversaries, collaborations or similar.

Unclear cases

Employ particular caution in cases of gifts or advantages from people or companies with whom you have dealings as part of your duties. There is a high risk of bribery.

The golden rule is to decline offers of advantages in all unclear cases. Gifts that cannot be declined by the employee on the grounds of politeness should be immediately passed on to the relevant manager who will take a decision about how the University will handle them.

If you have any questions, contact the Legal Affairs Division at the University Administration.

What should I do?

You should not hesitate to report to your manager or other appropriate superior if you detect any type of impropriety, irregularity or crime at your workplace or in any other part of the public sector activities. You can report to the University’s management, the Legal Affairs Division, Internal Audit, the police or a prosecutor.

[1] In these guidelines, ‘employee’ refers to both employees and contractors.