GREECE Law and Practice Contributed by: Ilias Anagnostopoulos and Alexandros Tsagkalidis, Anagnostopoulos
8.2 Compliance Guidelines and Best Practices Following a series of amendments in tax legisla - tion which provide for stricter rules in bookkeep - ing, payments and money transfers, combined with changes in AML legislation, organisations are making a serious effort to comply with such obligations. In addition, certain industries have been more active in promoting best practices guidelines and monitoring the market. Most medium-to-large-scale businesses have an internal control programme in place, and train their employees in anti-corruption procedures on a regular basis, and, during the last three to four years, more businesses have been integrat - ing procedures to encourage reporting of cor - ruption (whistle-blowing). Guidance is provided by the regulating bodies of each sector (such as the Bank of Greece), which issue by-laws with the minimum requirements of compliance. 8.3 Compliance Monitorships Regulatory agencies (such as the Competition Commission, the Capital Market Commission and the Greek Gaming Commission) monitor the adherence of corporate entities to standards set by the relevant legal provisions in respect of matters within their competence. In the event of breaches, these agencies have the powers to impose administrative penalties and to for - ward their findings to the Prosecutor’s Office for a criminal investigation to be initiated.
in relation to facilitating payments and tax fraud schemes through real estate deals. 7.6 Level of Sanctions Imposed If an individual is convicted, the court has a broad margin in deciding their sentence. The length of the sentence depends on a variety of “personal” factors, such as the individual’s role in the criminal act, their criminal past, their fam - ily and personal status, etc. The amount of the bribe and the reason for which the bribe was giv - en or promised is also taken into consideration. Although the GCC does not establish detailed duties to prevent corruption, Articles 236 para - graph 3, 237 paragraph 3 and 159A paragraph 3 of the GCC provide for the punishment of com - pany executives, or any other persons with deci - sion-making or supervisory powers within the company, who fail through negligence to prevent acts of corruption. Moreover, the need to comply with stricter regulations and the changes taking place in all aspects of corporate activities have led to significant changes in the way organisa - tions deal with such matters. Organisations rec - ognise that detecting and exposing corruption practices help to reduce and/or eliminate market distortions and improve business practices. Moreover, Law 4706/2020 On Corporate Gov - ernance and Capital Market Modernisation stip - ulates that a corporation is obliged to have an effective compliance programme in place as part of its regulation of internal operations. 8. Compliance Expectations 8.1 Compliance Obligations
9. Assessment 9.1 Assessment of the Applicable Enforced Legislation
In its latest “Phase 3bis follow-up: Additional written report” of 2018, the Organisation for Eco -
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