Fcpa Compliance Report

One of the things that I learned from the television series M*A*S*H was the need for triage. In the hospital setting, triage is the process of determining the priority of patients’ treatments based on the severity of their condition. This is considered in different language in the Justice Department’s (DOJ) Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs (Evaluation), which under Prong 7 reads, in part, Properly Scoped Investigation by Qualified Personnel – How has the company ensured that the investigations have been properly scoped, and were independent, objective, appropriately conducted, and properly documented? Tying all of together is short but succinct statement found in the 2012 FCPA Guidance, “once an allegation is made, companies should have in place an efficient, reliable,  and properly funded process for investigating the allegation and documenting the company’s response, including any disciplinary or remediation measures taken.”  Given the number of ways that information about violations or potential

In this episode, I visit with Chris Morton, the SVP, Marketing and Corporate Development for Navex, about the firm's new resource for the Compliance Community, ComplianceNext.com. It is a free, compliance community driven learning platform designed to offer real-world education and skill enhancement for the compliance professional. Morton discusses its launch, the partners involved, highlights some of the content and discusses the user experience. Best of all, this resource is FREE. For more information, check out the site ComplianceNext.com.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Your company should have a detailed written procedure for handling any complaint or allegation of bribery or corruption, regardless of the means through which it is communicated. The mechanism could include the internal company hot-line, anonymous tips, or a report directly from the business unit involved. You can make the decision on whether or not to investigate with consultation with other groups such as the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors or the Legal Department. The head of the business unit in which the claim arose may also be notified that an allegation has been made and that the Compliance Department will be handling the matter on a go-forward basis. Through the use of such a detailed written procedure, you can work to ensure there is complete transparency on the rights and obligations of all parties once an allegation is made. This allows the Compliance Department to have not only the flexibility but also the responsibility to deal with such matters, from which it can best assess and then d

In this episode, I visit with Robyn Bew, the Director of Strategic Content Development for the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) and Henry Stoever, the Chief Marketing Officer for the NACD. They discuss what is the NACD, who are its members and why directors or those desiring to be directors should join. We review some of the highlights from the 2017 NACD Directors Compensation Reports, the types of trainings offered by the NACD and the NACD’s advocacy for the director profession. You can find out more about the NACD by checking out their website, NACDonline.org.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Jay and I have a wide-ranging discussion on some of the week’s top compliance related stories. We discuss:  Brazilian meatpacker JBS agrees to the largest fine ever for fine for bribery and corruption, $3.2bn in Brazil. See article in the Wall Street Journal. Samuel Mebiame, sentenced to two years behind bars for paying bribes to help Och-Ziff with lucrative mining deals in Africa. See article by Sam Rubenfeld in WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal. Judge asks why no one else was criminally prosecuted. See article in Bloomberg. Both acquirer and target are under SFO investigation in Wood Group/AMEC merger for their use of Unaoil. See articles in This is Moneyand The Telegraph.  Compliance is making its way into Boards of Directors. See article by Ben DiPietro in the WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal. Did Jared Kushner violate the FCPA? Matthew Stephenson explores this question on the Global Anti-Corruption Blog. Jay previews his weekend report. Tom continues to talk about the release of his new boo

In an article in the Compliance and Ethics Professional Magazine, entitled “Foxes and henhouses: The importance of independent counsel”, Dan Dunne discussed what he termed a “critical element” in any investigation, which he denominated as “fair and objective evaluation.” Dunne wrote that a key component of this fair and objective evaluation is the WHO question; that is, who should supervise the investigation and who should handle the investigation? Dunne’s clear conclusion is that independent counsel should handle any serious investigation.  There are three reasons for a company to retain independent counsel for internal investigations of serious whistleblower complaints. First, André Agassi was right, perception is reality. This means that for any corporate ethics and compliance program to be effective, it must be perceived to be fair. If your employees do not believe that the investigation is fair and impartial, then it is not fair and impartial. Further, those involved must have confidence that any interna

The call, email or tip comes into your office; an employee reports suspicious activity somewhere across the globe. That activity might well turn into a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) issue for your company. As the Chief Compliance Officer (CCO), it will be up to you to begin the process which will determine, in many instances, how the company will respond going forward. This month’s podcast series will provide to you all the steps you will need to consider going forward. This scenario was driven home in a FCPA enforcement action brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in July 2015 involving Mead Johnson Nutrition Company (Mead Johnson). In that case, the company performed two internal investigations into allegations that its Chinese business unit was engaged in conduct which violated the FCPA. Unfortunately the first investigation, performed in 2011 did not turn up any evidence of FCPA violations. It was not until 2013, when the SEC made an inquiry to the company that it performed an ade

In this episode, Roy and I consider Sgt. Pepper's at 50; Artificial Intelligence in Compliance and how ComTech will change the face of compliance going forward.  For additional reading on these topics see: Compliance Lessons from Sgt. Pepper's  AI and Compliance Going Forward: Welcome to ComTech AI for Risk Management in Compliance Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Day 22-10 Questions to Better Operationalized Compliance I conclude this month’s series inspired by an article in the Harvard Business Review, entitled “Does Management Really Work?” by Nicholas Brown, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen. I found the article very useful because it gave succinct advice about what a business can do to improve its management practices and determined that this advice can be applicable to a compliance program. Based upon this article I have developed 10 questions which you might want to put use as a starting point for operationalizing your compliance initiatives going forward. I would challenge you to think about some of the answers to these questions in the context of your compliance program. Interconnectedness of Targets - How are compliance goals cascaded down to individual workers? Everyone recognizes the importance of ‘tone-at-the-top’ as it is enshrined in every description of a best practices compliance program. However, operationalizing compliance means moving towards an

In this episode Matt Kelly and I take a deep dive into the revisions to the COSO ERM Framework, which were based on comments by practitioners. We consider the role of culture and risk, the integration of the COSO ERM Framework into functional business units moving to operationalize ERM in organizations and we consider how the ERM Framework differs yet is complimentary to the COSO Internal Controls Framework.    For additional information, see Matt's Blogs posts on the COSO ERM Framework: More Details on COSO ERM Framework Update to COSO ERM Framework Update ERM Framework: Govt. Calls for Unity More Clues on Draft ERM Framework Draft ERM Framework is Here: How to Get StartedLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today I have back with me James Koukios, partner and Morrison Foerster on the firm's March 2017 report on the Top Ten International Anti-Corruption Developments for the month. We highlight the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals oral argument in the Hoskins case and the OCED Phase 4 reports on Finland and the UK. For a copy of the firm's report, click here.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How can you determine if Human Resources (HR) can meet the needs of a best practices compliance program? One place to start is with a gap analysis to determine what HR has in place that can facilitate your company’s compliance program. According to Bright Hub Project Management, a gap analysis “compares actual performance (or status) with the desired performance (or status). A gap analysis takes into account where the company is and where it wants to be. Any review of a company and its goals should include a thorough gap analysis - especially when wanting to improve productivity, processes and products.” From the HR and compliance perspective the four steps to undertaking a gap analysis are: (1) understanding the compliance and HR environment in your organization; (2) taking a holistic approach to understanding the compliance and HR environment; (3) determining a framework for analysis, and (4) compiling supportive data to test the program. Yet before beginning this exercise it is incumbent to understand that

The key concept from the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Program (Evaluation) is operationalization. For instance, under the query Shared Commitment is the following question - “How is information shared among different components of the company?” Under the Prong relating to Policies and Procedures the Designing Compliance Policies and Procedures asks, “What has been the company’s process for designing and implementing new policies and procedures? Who has been involved in the design of policies and procedures? Have business units/divisions been consulted prior to rolling them out?” Lastly, under the same Prong is Responsibility for Integration, with the following question “Who has been responsible for integrating policies and procedures?” These questions point to a Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) or compliance practitioner demonstrating how compliance is being burned into the fabric of an organization. While leadership at and from the top has long been considered by both the DO

This week, Jay and I have a wide-ranging discussion on some of the week’s top compliance related stories. We discuss:  Tom reports on Compliance Week 2017. See his articles in Compliance Week, here and here. If the DOJ releases new information in the form of the Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs, does anyone read it. See article in GIR (sub req’d). Jay discusses the SCCE event he attended last week in San Francisco. See Jay’s recap in his article I Left My #SCCE Heart in San Francisco or I Love It When A Plan Comes Together! Was the individual enforcement against the MoneyGram CCO significant or much ado about nothing? See article by Dick Cassin in the FCPA Blog and by Sara Kropt in her Grand Jury Blog. DOJ will embed prosecutors overseas. See article by Sam Rubenfeld in WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal. See full text of speech by Deputy AG Trevor McFadden by clicking here. Warriors and Cavs meet in the first time, three consecutive title match run. Tom and Jay consider from the compliance p

  One of the ways that Human Resources (HR) can help to operationalize compliance is to assist each level of an organization to have a proper tone. While the top of an organization rightly gets much of attention, the tone about doing business ethically and in in compliance is equally important in the middle of an organization.  A company must have more than simply a good ‘Tone-at-the-Top’; it must move it down through the organization from senior management to middle management and into its lower ranks. This means that one of the tasks of any company, including its compliance organization, is to get middle management to respect the stated ethics and values of a company, because if they do so, this will be communicated down through the organization. Adam Bryant, in a NYT article, entitled “If Supervisors Respect The Values, So Will Everyone Else”, explored this topic when he interviewed Victoria Ransom, the Chief Executive of Wildfire, a company which provides social media marketing software. Ransom spoke abou

Episode 18 Show Notes  I. Compensation, Incentive and Compliance In this episode, Roy Snell and myself discuss how incentives are integral to the compensation plans of a wide range of workers. Many experts point to their value in rewarding behavior that is in the interest of the organization and for keeping workers focused on activities that help the bottom line. At the same time, however, the incentives can pose great risks.  Many corporate scandals have shown that workers and corporate leaders may give in to the temptation to cheat to make their numbers, doing whatever they can to achieve their goals and reap the rewards. As a consequence, incentive plans may turn out to be a roadmap for compliance risk.  This danger argues for the compliance department having a role in reviewing incentive plans, if nothing else than to develop controls that ensure the numbers are hit properly, without violating policies, procedures, the law, and ethical norms.  To better assess the role of the compliance team in reviewing

The role of Human Resources (HR) in anti-corruption compliance programs, is often underestimated. If your company has a culture where compliance is perceived to be in competition or worse yet antithetical to HR, the company certainly is not hitting on all cylinders and maybe moving towards dysfunction. Another way you can operationalize compliance is in HR’s involvement of employee promotion. In Prong 8 of the Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs it asks the following question, Have there been any examples of actions taken (e.g., promotions or awards denied) as a result of compliance and ethics considerations?  The 2012 FCPA Guidance expounded further, “[M]ake integrity, ethics and compliance part of the promotion, compensation and evaluation processes as well. For at the end of the day, the most effective way to communicate that “doing the right thing” is a priority is to reward it. Conversely, if employees are led to believe that, when it comes to compensation and career advancement, all that counts

In this episode Matt Kelly and I take a deep dive into the question of whether a company has a duty to disclose ransomware attacks. We consider it from the regulatory, legal, ethical, law enforcement, business, PR and some other angles. What may seem to be a straight-forward answer to a regulatory obligations turns out to be anything but.  For additional research, see Matt Kelly's blogpost, "Ransomware: To Disclose or Not".Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs document makes clear that operationalization of compliance into an organization should be done at multiple levels in a company. Creating an ethical culture is an important step for any company to burn compliance into the DNA of a business. It must be done at every level of an organization on a continuous basis.  In an article in the Harvard Business Journal (HBJ) online publication by Christopher McLaverty and Annie McKee, entitled “What You Can Do to Improve Ethics at Your Company”, the authors surveyed C-suite executives and noted, “More often the dilemmas were the result of competing interests, misaligned incentives, clashing cultures.” Based on this study and their prior work, the authors noted three major obstacles to ethical behavior.  Initially was the issue of corporate change. The authors stated, “Companies can warp their own ethical climate by pushing too much change from the top, too quickly and too frequently. Leaders in the study reported having to

In this episode I visit with Chris McNett, SSGA Head of Environmental, Social and Governance on SSGA's ESG Institutional Investor Survey. Topics include: What was the reason for the State Street ESG Institutional Investor Survey?; What were the key findings?; ESG Adoption; Challenges to Adoption; How ESG pathways are evolving; Why is accelerating ESG so important?; What steps can a company take, from Ambition to Action; and How can interested parties learn more about SSGA and the State Street ESG Institutional Investor Survey. You can download a summary of the report by clicking here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices