Recently, the French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA) has published it’s annual report. Last year, the Agency consolidated its strategy and maintained a steady pace in its audit and advisory activities with 36 new audits, 50 training sessions, and 69 awareness-raising initiatives. Moreover, the AFA’s global role was enhanced through:

participation in 61 international events
reception of 43 foreign delegations
the signature of 4 cooperation agreements, including with the Inter-American Development Bank and the Controladoria-Geral da União (CGU)
close coordination with leading judicial authorities in France, the US, and the UK to combat foreign bribery
the organization of a workshop on anti-corruption compliance for SMEs with the OECD - OCDE and the The World Bank
the election to the presidency of the Network of Corruption Prevention Authorities (NCPA)

Multi-year plan to fight corruption

Another important milestone was the government’s adoption of the first multi-year plan to fight corruption. The plan will be implemented in 2020, 2021 and 2022. It concerns everyone from individual citizens, to businesses and local governments. It also provides for the priority deployment of measures to prevent and detect corruption by all ministries and their devolved departments.

Proceedings

In 2018, the public prosecutor’s offices dealt with 823 corruption cases, which represents an increase of 24.5% over 2013. The cases involved 1,235 perpetrators, including 293 legal entities. Fifty-six percent of these perpetrators were not liable to prosecution, mainly for lack of evidence. Of the 544 perpetrators who were liable to prosecution:

50 (9.2%) had the proceedings against them discontinued (inconclusive investigations, absence of plaintiff);
104 (19.1%) benefited from an alternative to prosecution;
192 (35.3%) saw their case referred to an investigating magistrate;
198 (36.4%) were prosecuted in criminal courts

Convictions

In 2018, the courts handed down 286 definitive convictions in corruption cases, primarily for bribery (45.8%), both active (26.6%) and passive (19.2%), misappropriation of public funds (18.2%) and unlawful taking of interest (38%). There were 344 convictions in 2017 and two legal entities were also convicted. The acquittal rate is particularly high in such cases at 26.2%, compared to a 7% acquittal rate in all cases. The appeal rate is also high, with 19.5% of convictions going to appeal. The sentences most commonly handed down for individuals are custodial sentences (72%), for an average prison term of 18.8 months, and fines (40%), for an average amount of €19,265. The courts also ordered 55 confiscations.

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