What is Corruption?
Corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. In a corporate setting it rarely looks like a suitcase of cash: it shows up as inflated consultancy invoices, hospitality that crosses a line, or a procurement decision quietly steered toward a relative's company. The financial loss is real, but the reputational and regulatory exposure usually costs more.
Common forms of corruption in business
Bribery is the most recognised form, whether paid to a public official to secure a permit or to a private buyer to win a contract. Kickbacks reverse the flow, returning part of an inflated payment to the person who approved it. Facilitation payments are small sums paid to speed up routine processes, prohibited outright under several regimes including the UK Bribery Act.
Two softer forms do most of the damage precisely because they look ordinary. Conflicts of interest arise when a decision-maker has an undisclosed stake in the outcome, and influence peddling trades on access rather than money. Both leave faint traces in the accounting records, which is why detection usually starts with pattern analysis rather than a single suspicious invoice.
Detecting and preventing corruption
Prevention starts with structural controls: competitive tendering, dual approval on supplier selection, declared interests for anyone with purchasing authority, and clear thresholds for gifts and hospitality. A written policy nobody tests is not a control.
Detection works differently. Round-number payments, vendors created shortly before a large contract, invoices just below an approval threshold, and third-party intermediaries in high-risk jurisdictions are the patterns that repay investigation. These signals only appear when the full transaction population is reviewed.
Corruption and Supervizor
Supervizor's AI and Controls platform runs corruption-specific tests across the whole ledger, looking for the structural patterns rather than waiting for a tip-off. Teams use it to:
- Surface suspicious vendor behaviour such as newly created suppliers, shared bank details with employees, and invoices sitting just under approval limits
- Test gifts, hospitality and travel expenses against policy thresholds across every entity
- Monitor high-risk third parties continuously rather than during periodic due diligence reviews