Compliance & Ethics Professional - Society of Corporate ...

Compliance & Ethics Professional March/April 2012··Ensure that disciplinary provisions existfor both those who violate the standardsand procedures and those who knowinglyignore such violations.Take the steps necessary to ensure that theorganization learns from its experiences.··Develop the mechanisms necessary toidentify why misunderstandings and/orviolations occur and to ensure that thelessons learned are systematically appliedto reduce the probability that similarquestions/actions would recur.··Follow-up on recommendations made toimprove compliance mechanisms.Other roles and responsibilitiesThe use of ethics committees for executiveand/or administrative oversight of the variousethics effectiveness and ethics managementprocesses is widespread but, in some cases, theethics committee is also being required to performfunctions that are at odds with the areasof responsibility shown above.Ethics committees rightly serve an executiveoversight and leadership role. That roleshould not be compromised by having thecommittee responsible for the investigationof alleged wrongdoing or the definition ofspecific disciplinary responses in individualcases. This confuses the issue. Responsibilityfor oversight should be free from the prejudicesassociated with operations. The ethicscommittee should be the advocate for effectiveethics management processes, nothingmore. It best represents the organization’sand employees’ interests by ensuring that theethics management systems are effective andmeet the requirements of applicable law andguidelines.It would be inappropriate for an ethicscommittee to be involved in fact findingand/or discipline regarding alleged or provenethics violations. That role puts them in the“Ethics managementprocesses work best whenemployees/membersbelieve that thoseprocesses are neutral,and the fairness andimpartiality in the processis not compromised.”position of being the facilitators of policy, theinvestigators of specific circumstances, and thedispensers of punishment.The biggest concern is not the committeeemployees’ or members’ ability to handlethe multiplicity of functions. Rather, it is theimpact that such a multiplicity may have onthe perceptions of employees or members whomight shy away from using available ethicsresources because of a perceived conflict ofinterest between the roles of executive oversight,policy interpretation, advocacy for theemployee or member, and advocacy for theorganization.Ethics management processes work bestwhen employees/members believe that thoseprocesses are neutral, and the fairness andimpartiality in the process is not compromised.Active participation in the day-to-daymanagement and implementation of ethicsprocesses takes the ethics committee out ofthe role of overseer and makes them the managersof the ethics functions. This is akin tohaving the comptroller also be the auditor.There is too great a potential for independenceand impartiality to be sacrificed for it to beendorsed as a preferred practice.Although the ideal may be to distance theethics committee from day-to-day operations,that may not be feasible. If the ethics committeeis to provide oversight and operationalmanagement, that becomes a strong argument52 www.corporatecompliance.org +1 952 933 4977 or 888 277 4977