Compliance & Ethics Professional - Society of Corporate ...

Featureby Steve McGrawGRC focus: Keep youremployees close and yourauditors closer»»With regulatory attention continuing to focus on GRC results, corporations need to focus on ensuring compliance is up to par.»»Corporations need to show employees that all internally reported issues will be taken seriously.»»Sharing compliance self-assessments and mitigation programs with auditors can help corporations establish a strong reputation.»»GRC should be viewed as increasingly beneficial, especially when preparing for mergers and acquisitions.»»GRC systems can provide information to show trend lines and correlations to address root-cause issues before regulators ask.Compliance & Ethics Professional March/April 2012McGrawAs we continue through 2012, the focusof regulatory bodies continues to befirmly focused on Governance, Riskand Compliance (GRC) results. Corporationsand their boards of directors need to payincreasing attention to reducing compliancethreats. This task often falls on theshoulders of the compliance officer,along with the need to ensure thatcompliance programs adhere to themost current versions of ever-changinglaws and regulations.What many corporations havelearned already is that the best way toprotect a company’s interests is to ensure thatcompliance is up to par internally, before theregulators come calling. This said, there are afew areas that corporations should pay veryclose attention to as we move through the year.Bounty hunter threats are increasingPersonal greed has long been the primarymotivator behind fraud and abuse, and regulatorsare now increasingly using a varietyof greed-oriented rewards to help identifyand prosecute offenders. The Securities andExchange Commission (SEC) and CommoditiesFutures Trading Commission (CFTC) now haveformal whistleblower bounty hunter programs,using a percentage of the sanctions as rewards.As these and similar programs begin to hittheir strides, compliance officers and theirboards of directors will face increasing threatsto their internal compliance programs and,ultimately, their institutional brands.Corporations also need to show theiremployees that the Compliance departmentwill follow up on issues that are reported internally.For example, a corporation can removeidentifying facts from the reported claims, thenpost them on in-house blogs to show employeesexamples of what is being reported andthat each claim is being taken seriously.Demonstrating compliance effectiveness iscriticalHistorically, regulators have been satisfiedwith companies that have implemented complianceprograms, but now they want proofthat the programs are actually working. Moreregulatory authorities will begin to require aprocess that distills data and demonstrates theoverall effectiveness of a company’s complianceprogram.28 www.corporatecompliance.org +1 952 933 4977 or 888 277 4977