If governance is putting a strain on your ability to manage business IT, then get prepared – more legislation is on the way.

The context to such legislative change comes in the form of downturn and dishonesty. Big business bonuses and parliamentary expense scandals have left a sour taste in the mouth of the average UK voter, particularly when unemployment is rising and wage increases are stalling.

In an attempt to persuade the electorate that the government is taking corruption seriously, new bribery laws are being pushed through prior to the forthcoming election. The Bribery Bill – which would update existing UK laws dating back to 1916 – has already passed through the House of Lords.

The overhaul will have a significant affect on UK PLC and you must review your policies and processes to ensure your organisation is not committing bribery offences.

In short, the bill proposes four offences: bribing another person; receiving a bribe; bribing a foreign public official; and failure by a commercial organisation to prevent bribery by a person who provides services to the business.

The final area should be most concerning to businesses; fail to prevent employees or consultants from committing bribery and you could find your organisation liable.

Definitions of such offences are at-best sketchy, but the government will expect you to have taken appropriate action to prevent bribery. From policy to audits, small and big businesses will be expected to have taken preventative action.

Are you ready? When it comes to the new bribery bill, do you have the right fraud detection systems in place so that your business will not be held liable?

Top of your technology spending list should be spend analysis, a type of software that can help you collect, cleanse and classify spending information. Web-based spend analytics will help you develop a cost-effective and timely approach to reporting.

The platform will also allow you to take information from multiple sources, such as accounts, travel and procurement, and create a single view of your organisation’s expenditure.

Such a grip on your expenditure will help you detect anomalies, improve efficiency and – most importantly, which it comes to the new Bribery Bill – monitor compliance.