Last week, the approved amendments to Saudi Arabia’s anti-bribery law included using the phrase “every person” instead of “every public employee” in Article 5. It stipulates that every public employee who, for himself or for others, made a promise or accepted a gift to use actual or alleged influence to obtain or attempt to obtain from any public authority a business, order, decision, obligation, license, supply agreement, job, service or advantage of any kind shall be considered a bribe-taker. The punishment is either imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years, a fine not exceeding SR1 million ($266,666) or both. It is worth mentioning that the commission of this crime does not affect the employee’s intention not to do the work he promised. Therefore, this amendment extends the scope of application of this article to all individuals and not just public employees. It was also decided to amend the seventh paragraph of Article 8 of the same law, adding foreign public officials, employees of international institutions and organizations in relation to the conduct of international business to the list of those who enjoy the same capacity and treatment of public employees. The last amendment included Article 15, which is concerned with the confiscation of money or interest subject to the crime of bribery whenever possible. The confiscation of the value of this money or interest was added on a case-by-case basis, as well as the confiscation of any proceeds from that money, advantage or interest. Efforts to combat bribery have been going on since the legal and organizational formation was approved and executed in the Kingdom. Saudi Arabia has taken extreme measures to combat this phenomenon where members of the community also participate and report cases of bribery. Violators of the law are also publicized. As a result of such announcements, many governmental and private sectors focused more on their policies and even practices and forces to avoid any suspicious interactions. Of course, assurance and protection must be secured for individuals in order to facilitate the development needed in raising their awareness of the reporting culture in general and how to react to these bribery violations. Though whistleblowers’ information is strictly confidential and private, the ways to access their data are numerous and varied and unfortunately it is not impossible, especially if the reporter was an employee who is directly and exclusively informed of certain corruption incidents. In the future, we hope that the protection of such witnesses and reporters will extend to include all types of reports, not just those of financial and administrative corruption. • Dimah Talal Alsharif is a Saudi lawyer and legal consultant. Twitter: @dimah_alsharif Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News" point-of-view