In today’s edition of Sunday Book Review:
- The High Crusade by Poal Anderson
- Way Station by Clifford Simak
- Flowers for Algeron by Daniel Keyes
- Call Me Conrad by Roger Zalazny
Author: admin
Is a Board of Directors a compliance internal control? The clear answer is yes. In the 2020 FCPA Resource Guide, Hallmarks of an Effective Compliance Program, there are two specific references to the obligations of a Board in a best practices compliance program. One states, “Within a business organization, compliance begins with the Board of Directors and senior executives setting the proper tone for the rest of the company.” The second is found under the Hallmark entitled “Oversight, Autonomy and Resources,” which says the CCO should have “direct access to an organization’s governing authority, such as the Board of Directors and committees of the Board of Directors (e.g., the audit committee).”
Further, under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, the Board must exercise reasonable oversight on the effectiveness of a company’s compliance program. The DOJ Prosecution Standards posed the following queries: Do the directors exercise independent review of a company’s compliance program, and are directors provided information sufficient to enable the exercise of independent judgment? The DOJ’s remarks drove home to me the absolute requirement for Board participation in any best practices or even effective anti-corruption compliance program.
Three key takeaways:
- Board oversight over the compliance function is a separate internal control so document it and use it.
- Board must perform oversight over your company’s internal controls.
- Does your Board use the five principles for involvement in compliance internal controls?
For more information on how to build out a best practices compliance program, including internal controls, check out The Compliance Handbook, 3rd edition.
Companies have finally come to realize that institutional justice and fairness are perhaps the most basic tenet of any successful workplace. If employees believe they will be treated fairly, it will engender a level of trust that can work to not simply motivate employees but lead to a more successful workplace and, at the end of the day, a more profitable company. This encompasses the entire lifecycle of the employment relationship, from hiring through separation. It works in areas as seeming disparate as compensation and incentives, discipline, promotion and internal reporting.
The issue of Institutional Justice is most clearly seen in the area of discipline. This can be in the overall application of a compliance program to all employees, Board members and senior managers. One of the areas which Human Resources can operationalize your compliance program is to ensure that discipline is handed out appropriately and consistently across an organization and to reward those employees who integrate such ethical and compliant behavior into their individual work practices. In addition to providing a financial incentive for ethical behavior, it also provides a sense of institutional justice. Institutional justice comes from procedural fairness and is one area that will bring credibility to your compliance program
Three key takeaways:
- The DOJ and SEC have long called for appropriate and consistent application of both incentives and discipline.
- The Fair Process Doctrine will help set institutional justice as the norm in your organization.
- Inconsistent application of discipline will destroy your compliance program credibility.
In this episode of Life with GDPR, Jonathan Armstrong and Tom Fox have their first emergency podcast. Earlier this week, the Irish Data Protection Commission raided Facebook in Ireland over the company’s announced plan to begin a dating service on Valentine’s Day. Some of the highlights in this episode include:
- What is the to-do all about?
- Do European data protection authorities have dawn raid powers?
- What might the Irish Data Protection Commission have been looking for in this raid?
- What is the role of a DPIA in this process and why is it so critical?
- When should a DPIA be carried out?
- How can a DPIA a mitigating or aggravating factor?
- What is the importance of training around DPIAs?
- What does this mean for companies and clients going forward?
Resources
Cordery Breach Navigator
Cordery Client Alert “Ireland’s Data Protection Authority Halts Facebook Dating Service”
As Jim Crane apologizes for the Astro cheating by announcing to the world the Astros were the best team in 2017 so go pound sand if you don’t like it, Jay and Tom are back to consider some of the top compliance articles and stories which caught our eye this week.
- Trump orders DOJ to cut Roger Stone sentence recommendation. Eileen Sullivan in the NYT. Sara Kropf considers the legal angle for defense attorney’s in Grand Jury Target.
- Is data privacy a lifestyle? Jessica Wilburn explores in Navex Global’s Ethics and Culture Matters blog.
- Compliance budgets are getting tighter. Matt Kelly considers in Radical Compliance. Tom and Matt take a deep dive in Compliance into the Weeds.
- Britain and France’s cooperation in the Airubs investigation and enforcement action. Branislav Hock in Risk and Compliance.
- Game changes in compliance training. Jaclyn Jaeger in Compliance Week. (sub req’d)
- What is the power of proactive monitoring? Jay explores in CCI.
- Worried about CCO liability? Matt Kelly explores on Radical Compliance.
- Wistful thinking that FCPA enforcement going away. Bill Steinman in the FCPA Blog.
- Why Board governance around compliance must change. Mike Volkov on Corruption Crime and Compliance.
- On the Compliance Podcast Network, Tom begins a one month look at the role of HR in compliance on 31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program.This week saw the following offerings: Monday-6 core principles for compliance incentives; Tuesday-designing comp to incentivize compliance; Wednesday-exec comp and compliance incentives; Thursday-sales incentives and compliance; Friday-instituional justice and fair process. Note 31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program now has its own iTunes channel. If you want to binge out and listen to only these episodes, click here.
Tom Fox is the Compliance Evangelist and can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com. Jay Rosen is Mr. Monitor and can be reached at jrosen@affiliatedmonitors.com.
Where does creativity fit into compliance? In more places than you think. Problem-solving, accountability, communication, and connection – they all take creativity. Join Tom Fox and Ronnie Feldman on Creativity and Compliance, part of the Compliance Podcast Network to explore these issues. Today’s episode is about creative ways to use internal social media tool to improve your compliance communications.
Some of the highlights include:
- Stretching you compliance messaging by using tactics for reaching more employees. -Using internal social media sites like Chatter, Yammer, Jive, Workplace to reach employees in new ways. These are used by other departments to connect groups. Why doesn’t the compliance function use them as well?
- This is another channel outside of an LMS push to reach more people
- These channels work like social media. The key is that you need to present something interesting for people to choose to access. Many have #hashtags and are interactive
- Post interesting videos
- Post interesting Graphics & GIFs
- Post contests
- Ask for feedback
- This is a way to increase visibility and promote your main messaging
- Compliance is here to help advice and coach
- Speak Up Culture
- Here is where you go for more info
- Ethics and Compliance needs more visibility – so increase access through these channels. And if you want to use these channels, it should be interesting or fun or you won’t get access.
Resources:
Ronnie Feldman
Ronnie Feldman (LinkedIn)
Learnings & Entertainments (LinkedIn)
Ronnie Feldman (Twitter)
Learnings & Entertainments (Website)
60-Second Communication & Awareness Shorts – A variety of short, customizable, quick-hitter “commercials” including songs & jingles, video shorts, newsletter graphics & Gifs, and more. Promote integrity, compliance, the Code, the helpline and the E&C team as helpful advisors and coaches.
Workplace Tonight Show! Micro-learning – a library of 1-10-minute trainings and communications wrapped in the style of a late-night variety show, that explains corporate risk topics and why employees should care.
Custom Live & Digital Programing – We’ll develop programming that fits your culture and balances the seriousness of the subject matter with a more engaging delivery.
In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:
- Huawei indicted on racketeering charges. (WSJ)
- Judge puts brakes on Microsoft cloud computing contract. (Washington Post)
- Astros owner tell everyone to pound sand. (com)
- Barclays CEO under investigation yet again? (NYT)
Richard Lummis and I are back. Today, begin our annual review of Oscar winning Best Pictures and the leadership lessons drawn from them. Over the next four weeks we will consider the following movies: Casablanca, Rocky, The Greatest Show on Earth and Out of Africa. Today, we begin our series with one of the very all-time greats, Casablanca.
Highlights of this podcast include:
- What are our favorites scenes from the movie?
- What is the world view from Casablanca, including actions and behaviors, values and belief systems and stories of life?
- What are the leadership lessons from the nobility of Rick Blaine?
- What can you learn from one of the movie’s greatest lovers?
- What does compassion help in leadership?
- Do these lessons hold up today?
Resources
Roundup the Usual Suspects for Leadership Lessons
Leading from the Lover Archetype: Rick Blaine
Casablanca and the Four Levels of Worldview
Casablanca Lessons
Welcome to a special series of Trekking Through Compliance, the podcast series inspired by my review of Star Trek, the Original Series. In this special series I am joined by another uber Star Trek maven, Megan Dougherty. In this series we will review the new television show Picard which is currently streaming on CBS.
SPOILER ALERT-Although we will review each episode after it appears, we will discuss each episode in depth.
Episode 2, Maps and Legends. A flashback shows a normal day on Mars Utopia Planitia Shipyards followed by the deadly attack on Mars 14 years ago by the synthetics. Following Dahj’s death, Picard seeks to track her twin Soji down. With the help of Laris, he investigates Dahj’s apartment and finds the place completely scrubbed. Laris suggests that the assassins may have been part of the Zhat Vash, an organization even more secretive than the Tal Shiar that holds a deep-rooted hatred of synthetics. At the Romulan reclamation site, a relationship between Soji and Narek is flourishing. Picard appeals to Starfleet for a ship but is denied by Admiral Kirsten Clancy. Picard attempts to assemble his own crew, inviting Agnes Jurati and the estranged Raffi Musiker. Meanwhile, Clancy informs Commodore Oh of Picard’s request and asks her to look into it. Oh notifies the (secretly Romulan) Lt. Rizzo to have her undercover operative “stay on mission”. Via holo-communicator, Rizzo speaks to Narek, her operative and brother. Rizzo warns Narek that if he does not persuade Soji to reveal the location of other synthetics, she would be forced to take more extreme measures.
Highlights include:
- Is Picard mentally fit to go into space?
- How did the Romulans infiltrate Star Fleet leadership?
- Does Picard think the Romulans have breached Star Fleet security?
- What about the tech?
- What are the ethics around the Borg reclamation project?
- What was the former relationship between Picard and Raffi?
