Tag: reporting

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FCPA Compliance Report

FCPA Compliance Report: Exploring DOJ’s New Whistleblower Incentive Program with Mary Inman

Welcome to the award-winning FCPA Compliance Report, the longest running podcast in compliance. In this edition of the FCPA Compliance Report, Tom Fox welcomes back Mary Inman, Partner at Whistleblower Partners LLC, to discuss the new DOJ Whistleblower Incentive Program.

Tom and Mary discuss the DOJ’s New Whistleblower Incentive Program’s aim to fill gaps in existing reward programs and its focus areas, including financial institution violations, foreign and domestic corruption, and healthcare offenses. Mary highlights some criticisms of the program, such as lack of a reward floor and the cap on rewards, and the potential challenges and impacts on corporate compliance. They also talk about the interplay between whistleblowers, DOJ, and corporate investigations, and the potential for adaptation of the program based on stakeholder feedback.

Highlights in this Episode:

  • DOJ Whistleblower Incentive Program Overview
  • Four Focus Areas of the New Program
  • Challenges and Criticisms of the Program
  • Concerns About Reward Mechanisms
  • Race to DOJ: Whistleblowers vs. Corporations
  • Implications for Corporate Compliance

Resources:

Mary Inman on LinkedIn

Whistleblower Partners

Tom Fox

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LinkedIn

For more information on the Ethico ROI Calculator and a free White Paper on the ROI of Compliance, click here.

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31 Days to More Effective Compliance Programs

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program Through Culture: Day 13 – Preventing Retaliation to Improve Culture

Retaliation against a person who speaks up is a pervasive issue that not only creates a toxic work environment but also discourages victims from reporting incidents. This means you must address retaliation and encourage reporting in workplaces. When employees report harassment face severe retaliation, which leads to a loss of trust in the reporting process. This fear of being labeled a “rat” or “gossip” often prevents victims from coming forward and seeking justice. To combat this issue, non-retaliation protocols are crucial to protect individuals and ensure legal compliance.

Non-retaliation protocols must be in place to encourage reporting.  The fear of retaliation is deeply rooted in the perception of being a whistleblower or complainant. Every compliance must have strong policies, consequences for violators, and open workplace conversations to empower bystanders. Bystanders play a crucial role in identifying and reporting harassment, but they often fear retaliation or loyalty conflicts.

Addressing retaliation and encouraging reporting in workplaces requires a multifaceted approach. Strong non-retaliation protocols, open workplace conversations, and the empowerment of bystanders are key factors in creating a safe and inclusive work environment. By prioritizing the well-being of employees and fostering a culture of trust, organizations can effectively combat sexual harassment and ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.

 Three key takeaways:

1. You must have robust policies and procedures against retaliation.

2. A lack of confidential reports will have an impact on culture.

3. Bystanders are the key to a robust culture.

Do you want to improve your culture? How can you assess your culture and develop a strategy to improve it going forward? In this free webinar on the new tool, The Culture Audit with Tom Fox and Sam Silverstein on Tuesday, November 28, 12 CT. For more information and registration, click here.

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31 Days to More Effective Compliance Programs

One Month to More Effective Reporting and Investigations – Advantages of an Internal Reporting System

While it is clear that the government expects companies to have an internal reporting system, there are benefits far beyond putting you in the government’s good graces. Companies with a more robust internal reporting system generated more reports. Dr. Welch found a group of companies he termed “power users”, which were high-level users of whistleblower reporting systems who had more activity than the average entity. These “power user” companies have several interesting characteristics. First, they are typically firms with higher quality earnings reporting. They are more profitable entities. Finally, these “power user” companies were firms with higher quality governance, as rated by the Entrenchment Index, which is used to measure how entrenched management is in a company.

Conversely, companies which were observed to be a more limited user of whistleblower reporting systems are companies that were seen to have poor governance. They are more prone to financial accounting issues, such as discretionary accruals, which could prove problematic. These tend to be smaller and less mature firms. Their overall compliance programs were generally not seen as robust or as effective as those in larger, more mature organizations. Finally, these firms, probably because they were smaller and less mature, are more prone to extreme growth and the problems associated with trying to scale up quickly.
All of this points to one unmistakable conclusion, a robust whistleblower reporting system facilitates a company’s resolution of problems before they become major problems or legal violations bringing the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or DOJ calling.

Three Key Takeaways

  1. Companies with a robust whistleblower and reporting system had greater profitability and workforce productivity as measured by Return on Assets.
  2. There were fewer material lawsuits brought against the company overall and there were lower settlement costs if a lawsuit did occur.
  3. There were fewer external whistleblower reports to regulatory agencies and other authorities.
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31 Days to More Effective Compliance Programs

One Month to More Effective Reporting and Investigations – Introduction

The call, email, or tip comes into your office; an employee reports suspicious activity somewhere across the globe. That activity might well turn into an FCPA issue for your company. As the CCO, it will be up to you to begin the process which will determine, in many instances, how the company will respond. This chapter will provide you with the steps you will need to consider going forward.
This chapter will detail the two parts; internal reporting and investigations. It would seem axiomatic that organizations understand the benefits of having an internal reporting system, whether it is called a hotline, helpline, or something else. Just as plainly, a company should understand the need for effective investigations after a report comes in which might lead to a potential violation.

Three key takeaways:

  1. A robust internal reporting system will be one of the key indicia the DOJ considers.
  2. Hotline reporting can bring a visibility to problems.
  3. Hotline reports must be treated fairly and justly.
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Innovation in Compliance

Third-Party Management: A risk-based approach – Part 4: Adam Bailey on Reporting

Welcome to a special 5-part podcast series sponsored by Diligent. Over this series, we will consider a risk-based approach to third-party risk management. Over this series, I will visit with Michael Parker, the Director of Advisory and Consulting Services; Stephanie Font, Director of the Optimizations Group; Kairi Isse, Managed Services Group Manager; Adam Bailey, Senior Vice President, Product Management and Alexander Cotoia, from the Volkov Law Group. In this Part 4, I visit with Adam Bailey to look at the role of the Board in risk, audit, compliance, and ESG and the reporting from executive teams and GRC practitioners to take risks and seize chances.

Bailey has worked to help organizations better manage their risk by providing insight and clarity to boards of directors. He strived to enable executive teams and GRC practitioners to assess and manage strategic risks, ultimately connecting boards, practitioners, and executives together to innovate and drive growth. With the complexity of third-party relationships continuing to grow, companies need to adopt a continuous improvement approach to contend with unforeseen risks. A corporate compliance function is not just something nice to have, but a must and a Board needs clear and relevant data to make the best decisions. Organizations need to use the necessary tools to ensure that Boards have the visibility to manage their third parties and make informed decisions.


Key Highlights
1. A compliance function must support leaders through its reporting work.
2. Companies can effectively manage third-party risk with a risk-based approach and robust processes.
3. Connecting Board, senior executives, and practitioners together to enable organizations to take risks and innovate is critical.

Notable Quotes

  1. “The key to this effective risk management is truly the follow-up, the ongoing follow-up to ensure that all the controls are in place and, if needed, are changed.”
  2. “Continuous blanket monitoring of all third parties with every risk asset you can think of is just not feasible and probably wouldn’t deliver the outcomes that we need.”
  3. “We know that change is constant, regulators are looking for risk management policies and practices which continually improve and evolve over time.”
  4. “We need robust processes and systems in place to make sure that when you create your third-party profile, it’s screened against sanctions lists, embargo watch lists, et cetera, to provide the rich data that’s there.”

Resources

Adam Bailey on LinkedIn

Check out Diligent’s 3rd party products and services here.