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ARTICLE · 02 JANUARY 2018

Facilitation Payments are Bribery: Canada Repeals "Facilitation Payments" Exception

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Canadian anti-corruption law is now clear, facilitation or "grease" payments to foreign public officials are illegal.

CanadaInternational Law
Cyndee Todgham Cherniak
Cyndee Todgham Cherniak
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Canadian anti-corruption law is now clear, facilitation or "grease" payments to foreign public officials are illegal. There used to be a gray area - some Canadian companies did not know how to approach the small payments requested by low-level officials to speed up routine government functions and Canadian compliance managers wasted much time guessing about whether the Canadian government would prosecute particular payment.  Was there a value limit?  What types of government functions would be accepted as routine? What types of government functions would be considered to be non-discretionary? Now, the guesswork is over.  If it looks like a bribe, it is a bribe and it is illegal.

Under the 1998 version of the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act (also known as Canada's FCPA) facilitation payments were exempt bribes.  Bill S-14 "An Act to Amend the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act" received Royal Assent on June 19, 2013 and included in subsection 3(2)

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