A Chief Compliance Officer faces many challenges in designing and implementing an effective ethics and compliance program. If a CCO conducts appropriate due diligence before joining the company, he will know the challenges he is facing. All too often, I hear of CCOs who join a company based on numerous promises and representations by the CEO, the board and senior managers about the importance of...
Let’s start with some basics – a public company is required to implement a set of internal controls. A compliance program is a critical part of a company’s internal controls. A company’s compliance program is only as effective as its board, executives, managers and employees adhere to the compliance policies and procedures. If a company’s constituents do not comply with the compliance program and policies,...
With an increasing focus on the value of an ethical culture, I have been reading more about chief ethics officers, the separation of ethics and compliance, and the traveling ethics officer who meets with employees to discuss ethics. Forgive me for being a contrarian but everyone is missing the point about an ethical culture. A company does not instill and promote an ethical culture by...
The Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) and the Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA) jointly released a resource guide on measuring the effectiveness of a health care organization’s compliance program. A copy of the guide can be downloaded here. The resource guide was the product of a roundtable meeting of OIG staff and compliance professionals on January 17, 2017. The roundtable focused...
Those who regularly read my blog have heard me often cite the need for the compliance profession to adopt professional standards. With the rise of the profession, and the expectations placed on the shoulders of compliance officers, the compliance profession has to develop and promote its own set of ethical standards. We have the benefit of many extraordinary and talented leaders in the compliance profession....
We all value transparency as a general concept, especially when it comes to the government. In a real macro perspective, we fund the government and we demand that our government operate efficiently, effectively and ethically. Transparency is a fundamental requirement for all citizens to monitor and regulate our government. When it comes to our criminal justice system, or the enforcement of our laws, we expect...
Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein’s appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller last week was a blockbuster development in the investigation of the administration. A copy of the DAG’s Order is here. Independent and Special Counsels A Special Counsel is different from Independent Counsels who investigated high-profile matters in the past. In the Watergate investigation, the Justice Department appointed Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox who was eventually dismissed...
Workplace Answers, a sponsor of Corruption, Crime & Compliance, is offering an online FCPA Quiz. It is fun to take and test your knowledge of the FCPA. The link to the test is here. While at the site, please take time to register with Workplace Answers, order a white paper, and consider your training program needs. Thank you again and have fun taking the quiz.
Our political discourse these days has been focused on three key words – obstruction of justice. Whatever your politics may be, these words and the law surrounding obstruction of justice are important to understand. We do not know if the country will have to endure another impeachment process, but obstruction of justice will be a critical part of the investigation. After all, the impeachment proceedings...
As the compliance function has matured, Chief Compliance Officers have built important relationships with related functions that are critical to the compliance function. Over the last few years, we have seen the Justice Department and the SEC focus on company invoice to payment functions as a key area of concern when assessing the effectiveness of a compliance program. Last week, I had the honor of...
