Tag: 3rd parties

31 Days to More Effective Compliance Programs

Managing third-parties

The building blocks of any compliance program lay the foundations for a best practices compliance program. For instance, in the lifecycle management of third-parties, most compliance practitioners understand the need for a business justification, questionnaire, due diligence, evaluation and compliance terms and conditions in contracts. However, as many companies mature in their compliance programs, the issue of third-party management becomes more important. It is also the one where the rubber meets the road of operationalizing compliance.
The key is to have a strategic approach to how you structure and manage your third-party relationships during the full lifecycle of the contract. This may mean more closely partnering with your third-parties to help manage the anti-corruption compliance risk. It would certainly lead towards enabling your company to manage the bribery and corruption risk while optimizing the performance of your third-parties.
Three key takeaways:

Have a strategic approach to third-party risk management.
Keep track of the financial stability of your third-parties.
Rank third-parties based upon a variety of factors including compliance and business performance, length of relationship, benchmarking metrics and KPIs.

Tags 3rd parties

31 Days to More Effective Compliance Programs

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program for 3rd Parties-3rd Party Compliance Terms and Conditions

Post author By admin
Post date April 12, 2020
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The 2020 Resource Guide stated, “In addition to considering a company’s due diligence on third parties, DOJ and SEC also assess whether the company has informed third parties of the company’s compliance program and commitment to ethical and lawful business practices and, where appropriate, whether it has sought assurances from third parties, through certifications and otherwise, of reciprocal commitments. These can be meaningful ways to mitigate third-party risk.”

You should incorporate appropriate compliance terms and conditions into in every contract with third-parties. I would suggest that you prepare a template, which can be used as a starting point for your negotiations. The advantages of such a template are several and they include: (1) the contract language is tested against real events; (2) the contract language assists the company in managing its compliance risks; (3) the contract language fits into a series of related contracts; (4) the contract language is straight-forward to administer; and (5) the contract language helps to manage the expectations of both contracting parties regarding anti-bribery and anti-corruption.

Many do not believe that they will be able to get the third-party to agree to such compliance terms and conditions. I have found that while it may not be easy, it is relatively simple to get a third-party to agree to these or similar terms and conditions. One approach to take is that they are not negotiable. When faced with such a position on non-commercial terms many third-parties will not fight such a position. There is some flexibility, but the DOJ will require the minimum compliance terms and conditions. But the best position I have found is that if a third-party agrees with these terms and conditions, they can then use that as a market differentiator.

Three key takeaways:

Compliance terms and conditions are mandatory for any best practices compliance program.
A key clause is the right to audit clause.
Third-parties can favor robust compliance terms and conditions as a market differentiator.

Tags 3rd parties, compliance terms and Conditions, T&C's

FCPA Compliance Report

Tony Charles on Managing a 3rd Party Process

Post author By admin
Post date March 9, 2020
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In this Episode, I visit with Tony Charles, Chief Client Officer at Steele Compliance Solutions, Inc. In this podcast we discuss the firm’s recent article 3rd Party Due Diligence: Creating a Credible and Defensible Program. We use it as an entrée into the topic of 3^rd party due diligence.

Some of the highlights include:
·      What was the genesis behind the article 3rd Party Due Diligence: Creating a Credible and Defensible Program?
·      Where should a company begin due diligence?
·      What are the levels of due diligence?
·      What is investigative tiering?
·      What is an investigative framework?
·      What are the critical components of automated due diligence program?
For a copy of the article 3rd Party Due Diligence: Creating a Credible and Defensible Program, click here.