FCPAméricas Blog
Three Concrete Ways in which FCPA Compliance Officers can Better Engage Operations
6.27.2012
One of the most difficult things about establishing an effective anti-corruption compliance program is getting the operations units of a company to take interest. Paper programs alone are insufficient. The Wal-Mart case and others tell us this. Instead, employees throughout a company must fully embrace compliance functions. And the business units are essential to putting compliance procedures into practice.
Here are three concrete things that an FCPA compliance officer can do to get the company’s operations teams better engaged:
1. Prioritize Communication. The more often that a compliance officer communicates with operations units, the easier it will be to gain buy-in for compliance requirements. To do this, compliance officers can attend regular meetings with company Leadership Committees, Chief Operating Officer staffs, and other management personnel. They can visit business sites, meet with employees, and discuss compliance strategies. They can reach out and seek feedback. When operations has input, it is more likely to be committed. As in anything, establishing personal relationships, trust, and open lines of communication is half the battle.
Being present not only allows the compliance officer to build support, it allows him or her to detect new risk areas and sources of concern. It positions the compliance officer to obtain feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of the program. He or she can be on top of new directions of the business that might demand new compliance strategies.
Interestingly enough, PwC’s State of Compliance: 2012 Study suggests that compliance programs could use more of this approach. In the study, only a third of respondents said that sales and marketing representatives serve on their compliance committees. Only 22% said that the supply chain is represented. More than one third had no representatives from operations at all. Instead, compliance committees are more often populated with people from legal, human resources, internal audit, and finance.
PwC’s Bobby Kipp, one of the co-authors of the report, explains, “Including marketing and sales and supply chain leaders in the composition of compliance committees can help ensure that the business bakes in, rather than bolts on, compliance into their teams’ everyday actions.” Sally Bernstein, another co-author, adds, “Compliance committees need to be dynamic and connected with the risk profile of the organization. The members of the committee should expand or change based on the biggest risks. This allows the committee to get appropriate insight on the challenges on actions required.”
2. Involve Operations in Program Design. Compliance officers can work with sales teams to determine reasonable cut-off levels for a gifts policy. They can work with human resources to determine how to build background checks for corruption red flags into hiring processes and seamlessly implement training after employees come on board. They can work with internal audit to design periodic compliance reviews of a program’s effectiveness (see this previous post for a discussion of internal audit’s role in compliance).
3. Give Operations Responsibility for Third Party Due Diligence. If business units are choosing third parties to support the company’s business, they are also well-positioned to assess and monitor those third parties for compliance. This is what companies like Tyco have successfully done. Giving them responsibility will likely cause them to steer clear of riskier third parties. They are also more likely to decline the use of a third party if they do not have a significant need to hire it. Note that this approach will require the compliance office, internal audit, legal, or another department to conduct regular spot checks to ensure that operations are doing what they are supposed to be doing.
In FCPAméricas next blog post, we will discuss ways that compliance officers can use the art of compliance to better engage these same operations units.
The FCPAméricas blog is not intended to provide legal advice to its readers. The blog entries and posts include only the thoughts, ideas, and impressions of its authors and contributors, and should be considered general information only about the Americas, anti-corruption laws including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, issues related to anti-corruption compliance, and any other matters addressed. Nothing in this publication should be interpreted to constitute legal advice or services of any kind. Furthermore, information found on this blog should not be used as the basis for decisions or actions that may affect your business; instead, companies and businesspeople should seek legal counsel from qualified lawyers regarding anti-corruption laws or any other legal issue. The Editor and the contributors to this blog shall not be responsible for any losses incurred by a reader or a company as a result of information provided in this publication. For more information, please contact Info@MattesonEllisLaw.com.
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© 2012 Matteson Ellis Law, PLLC
Post authored by Matteson Ellis, FCPAméricas Founder & Editor
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June 27th, 2012 at 8:39 pm
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