The US Department of Justice has unveiled a pilot scheme to make it easier for firms to tell it about the bribery of foreign public officials that they have facilitated, thereby helping it uncover more malpractice among financial firms and others with regard to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act 1977.

The principal goal of its one-year 'programme' is to promote greater accountability for individuals and companies that engage in corporate crime by motivating companies to volunteer details about the FCPA-related misconduct that their employees conduct. The intention is to encourage them to co-operate with the DoJ's Fraud Section to the maximum extent possible, and, where appropriate, remediate flaws in their controls and compliance efforts.

If successful, the pilot project ought to increase the DoJ's ability to prosecute individual wrongdoers whose conduct might otherwise have gone undiscovered or been impossible to prove. In a policy paper entitled "The Fraud Section's Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Enforcement Plan and Guidance," issued earlier this month it has added: "We...aim to accomplish the same goal by providing greater transparency about what we require from companies seeking mitigation credit for voluntarily self-disclosing misconduct, fully cooperating with an investigation, and remediating, and what sort of credit those companies can receive if they do so consistent with these requirements. Mitigation credit will be available only if a company meets the mandates set out below, including the disclosure of all relevant facts about the individuals involved in the wrongdoing. Moreover, to be eligible for such credit, even a company that voluntarily self-discloses, fully co-operates, and remediates will be required to disgorge all profits resulting from the FCPA violation."

As an incentive for such co-operation, the United States Sentencing Guidelines (found in the cases of Booker and Fanfan in 2005 to have no legal force but still beloved of the Federal Government and most of the judges that it appoints after a rigorous psychological screening process) provide for reductions in fines for business organisations that disclose criminal conduct voluntarily, co-operate fully and accept responsibility for the criminal conduct. The DoJ thinks that its new 'programme' will offer a greater incentive than before because it wants to reward co-operation by giving each helpful firm "a 50% reduction off the bottom end of the Sentencing Guidelines fine range, if a fine is sought." It is not known how a group of people other than judges can do this but the DoJ is confident that it is possible. It offers offenders another olive branch: "the...Fraud Section generally should not require appointment of a monitor if a company has, at the time of resolution, implemented an effective compliance programme." Lastly, it flirts unconvincingly with another vague possibility: "Where those same conditions are met, [we shall] consider a declination of prosecution."

The US Department of Justice's Fraud Section is also increasing the size of its Foreign Corrupt Practices Act unit by more than 50% by adding ten more prosecutors to its ranks. At the same time, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has established three new squads of special agents devoted to FCPA investigations and prosecutions.

Why should this matter to any financial firms that might have bribed foreign officials in a world where discovery is rare and random? The argument that the DoJ proffers in its plan is a weak one: "the department's demonstrated commitment to devoting additional resources to FCPA investigations and prosecutions should send a message to wrongdoers that FCPA violations that might have gone uncovered in the past are now more likely to come to light." It also woffles vaguely about co-operating ever-more closely with foreign prosecutors by sharing leads, documents and witnesses. Compliance officers whose opinions are sought by their boards might advise them that this 'programme,' which ends on 5th April 2017, offers almost nothing that was not on the table before.