Companies subject to the AFA's initiative inspections must meet a threshold of 500 employees and a turnover of 100 million euros. This threshold is defined by Article 17.

The AFA's core mission is to help competent authorities and persons confronted with breaches of probity to prevent and detect such offences. These include active and passive corruption, influence peddling, extortion by public officials, illegal taking of interests, misappropriation of public funds, and favouritism.

The AFA exercises its supervisory power through three distinct types of inspections: initiative inspections, execution inspections, and follow-up inspections. Initiative inspections target companies subject to Article 17, execution inspections oversee compliance programmes, and follow-up inspections verify the implementation of previous recommendations.

The Sanctions Committee may issue compliance orders within a maximum period of three years, fines of up to 200,000 euros for natural persons and 1,000,000 euros for legal persons, as well as the publication of decisions.

The AFA recommendations are not directly binding. They create a simple presumption of compliance for organisations that apply them, thereby reversing the burden of proof during inspections. This is confirmed by the Sanctions Committee decision of 4 July 2019.

Obstruction of investigations conducted by authorised AFA officers is indeed punishable by a fine of 30,000 euros. This is specified in the relevant legislation.

The current director of the AFA is Isabelle Jégouzo, appointed by presidential decree on 26 July 2023. She holds a non-renewable six-year term, guaranteeing her functional independence.

The AFA covers several types of breaches of probity, including active and passive corruption, influence peddling, extortion by public officials, illegal taking of interests, misappropriation of public funds, and favouritism. These breaches are classified into two categories: corruption-related offences and offences related to public fund management.