Compliance Perspectives

By Adam Turteltaub

Richard Bistrong from Front-Line Anti-Bribery does a great deal of face to face training on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and anti-bribery in general.

While we were both participating in an anti-corruption conference in Beijing, Richard sat down and shared his insights from time talking with and listening to compliance professionals, the workforce and management.

In this podcast he observes that knowledge about the FCPA’s requirements is generally not the problem:  workers understand it’s illegal to pay bribes.  The challenge that they are facing is how to work successfully in high risk geographies where their competitors may not be playing by the rules.

Many on the commercial side, he has found, believe that compliance doesn’t understand the challenges that they are up against.  To succeed, he believes, compliance needs to admit to the challenge and invite business people to share with the compliance team the risks that they face and then work together to devise an effective response.

Listen in to learn more about what he has found is on the commercial team’s mind, and also the challenge when it comes to working with management.

By Adam Turteltaub

Metrics are central for most everything in business, including compliance and ethics.  The key thing, though, is finding the right metrics.  Measure the wrong things, and you won’t know how you program is working.  Measure the right things but in the wrong way, and you can easily be just as lost.

Carl Hahn, Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer of Northrop Grumman has given the topic a great deal of thought, and put his thoughts into practice.  In this podcast he shares his expertise and addresses the following topics:

* What metrics are the most valuable for measuring the effectiveness of a compliance and ethics program

* What data is important to collect from groups outside of compliance

* The challenges in collecting the right data, and how to overcome those challenges

* The key allies when it comes to developing and using metrics

* Turning the data into something usable for assessing the effectiveness of your program

Listen in to learn how to better improve your own metrics.

By Adam Turteltaub

Metrics are central for most everything in business, including compliance and ethics.  The key thing, though, is finding the right metrics.  Measure the wrong things, and you won’t know how you program is working.  Measure the right things but in the wrong way, and you can easily be just as lost.

Carl Hahn, Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer of Northrop Grumman has given the topic a great deal of thought, and put his thoughts into practice.  In this podcast he shares his expertise and addresses the following topics:

* What metrics are the most valuable for measuring the effectiveness of a compliance and ethics program

* What data is important to collect from groups outside of compliance

* The challenges in collecting the right data, and how to overcome those challenges

* The key allies when it comes to developing and using metrics

* Turning the data into something usable for assessing the effectiveness of your program

Listen in to learn how to better improve your own metrics.

By Adam Turteltaub

In January 2017 the Health Care Compliance Association worked with the Office of Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services to host a roundtable.  The goal was to provide content for a tool that would enable compliance officers to better assess the effectiveness of their compliance program.

The result of that effort was released later that year.  Since then Measuring Compliance Program Effectiveness:  A Resource Guide has proven an invaluable aid for compliance community.

Laura Ellis, Senior Counsel in the Office of Counsel to the Inspector General at HHS, explain that it is filled with questions designed to assess various parts of compliance programs and how they are functioning.  It is intended for organizations to use internally and is centered around the seven elements of an effective compliance and ethics program.

Importantly, this is not designed to be a tool for enforcement to use as a yardstick.  Instead, it is for compliance professionals to use to make their programs better, whether the organization they work for is large, medium or small.

Not every question in the guide is going to be relevant for every organization.  Nor could any organization possibly assess itself on every measure annually.  Rather, as she explains, it is best to be used selectively and regularly to asses various compliance program elements.

Listen in to learn more about how to put this important document to work for your organization.

 

By Adam Turteltaub

In January 2017 the Health Care Compliance Association worked with the Office of Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services to host a roundtable.  The goal was to provide content for a tool that would enable compliance officers to better assess the effectiveness of their compliance program.

The result of that effort was released later that year.  Since then Measuring Compliance Program Effectiveness:  A Resource Guide has proven an invaluable aid for compliance community.

Laura Ellis, Senior Counsel in the Office of Counsel to the Inspector General at HHS, explain that it is filled with questions designed to assess various parts of compliance programs and how they are functioning.  It is intended for organizations to use internally and is centered around the seven elements of an effective compliance and ethics program.

Importantly, this is not designed to be a tool for enforcement to use as a yardstick.  Instead, it is for compliance professionals to use to make their programs better, whether the organization they work for is large, medium or small.

Not every question in the guide is going to be relevant for every organization.  Nor could any organization possibly assess itself on every measure annually.  Rather, as she explains, it is best to be used selectively and regularly to asses various compliance program elements.

Listen in to learn more about how to put this important document to work for your organization.

 

By Adam Turteltaub

Karen Moore is a compliance officer who has worked both in Europe and in the US.  Like most people, in the course of her career she had chosen to leave one job for another.

The easy changes are the ones where a great new opportunity comes out of nowhere, and you just can’t say no.  Sometimes, though, there is the opposite situation:  the job grows to be intolerable.  You dread coming in and every minute of the day.

In her conversation with us, Karen talks about how to know when it’s time to leave.  She addresses the signs to watch out for, such as a lack of commitment by management.  She also discusses what to do to try and make things better, allies you can turn to, and how to know that there isn’t any hope.

Finally, the conversation turns to both preserving your professional reputation and meeting professional obligations.  To learn more about the latter, be sure to check out the Code of Professional Ethics for Compliance and Ethics Professionals.

By Adam Turteltaub

Karen Moore is a compliance officer who has worked both in Europe and in the US.  Like most people, in the course of her career she had chosen to leave one job for another.

The easy changes are the ones where a great new opportunity comes out of nowhere, and you just can’t say no.  Sometimes, though, there is the opposite situation:  the job grows to be intolerable.  You dread coming in and every minute of the day.

In her conversation with us, Karen talks about how to know when it’s time to leave.  She addresses the signs to watch out for, such as a lack of commitment by management.  She also discusses what to do to try and make things better, allies you can turn to, and how to know that there isn’t any hope.

Finally, the conversation turns to both preserving your professional reputation and meeting professional obligations.  To learn more about the latter, be sure to check out the Code of Professional Ethics for Compliance and Ethics Professionals.

By Adam Turteltaub

What does the DOJ think about compliance programs?  What do they look for when meeting with a company?  What does this mean for how I think about compliance?

Daniel Kahn, the Chief of the FCPA Unit at the US Department of Justice, was generous enough to share his insights into these issues and many others in this podcast.  Listen in as he addresses several topics that compliance professionals are eager to better understand.  Some highlights of his talk include:

* When it comes to corruption prosecutions, don’t only think about the US government. Recognize that multiple foreign governments may be involved, and with multiple approaches.  Amongst other things, it could affect your decision of disclosing not just to the DOJ, but prosecutors from other countries as well

* The DOJ’s FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy has been formalized, and a great deal of emphasis has been placed on compliance programs. The impact of the policy can be seen in various settlements and enforcement actions.

* Because compliance is risk- and company-specific, the compliance program should reflect the company’s unique situation. It’s not enough to say what the program looks like, you should be able to articulate why it looks that way and demonstrate a well-thought-out, targeted approach.

* When presenting data on effectiveness, it’s not enough just to show, for example, the number of helpline calls. You need to show what happened as a result of them:  Were they investigated? What categories did they fall into?  What was the organization’s response?

* While obtaining a certification for your compliance program can be perceived positively as a demonstration of a company’s good faith efforts, it is not a proxy for the Department of Justice doing its own evaluation of the compliance program

Listen in to hear the full interview and all of his insights.

By Adam Turteltaub

What does the DOJ think about compliance programs?  What do they look for when meeting with a company?  What does this mean for how I think about compliance?

Daniel Kahn, the Chief of the FCPA Unit at the US Department of Justice, was generous enough to share his insights into these issues and many others in this podcast.  Listen in as he addresses several topics that compliance professionals are eager to better understand.  Some highlights of his talk include:

* When it comes to corruption prosecutions, don’t only think about the US government. Recognize that multiple foreign governments may be involved, and with multiple approaches.  Amongst other things, it could affect your decision of disclosing not just to the DOJ, but prosecutors from other countries as well

* The DOJ’s FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy has been formalized, and a great deal of emphasis has been placed on compliance programs. The impact of the policy can be seen in various settlements and enforcement actions.

* Because compliance is risk- and company-specific, the compliance program should reflect the company’s unique situation. It’s not enough to say what the program looks like, you should be able to articulate why it looks that way and demonstrate a well-thought-out, targeted approach.

* When presenting data on effectiveness, it’s not enough just to show, for example, the number of helpline calls. You need to show what happened as a result of them:  Were they investigated? What categories did they fall into?  What was the organization’s response?

* While obtaining a certification for your compliance program can be perceived positively as a demonstration of a company’s good faith efforts, it is not a proxy for the Department of Justice doing its own evaluation of the compliance program

Listen in to hear the full interview and all of his insights.

By Adam Turteltaub

Compliance officers are used to answering questions from the workforce, management, regulators and sometimes even prosecutors.  Increasingly, some are answering questions about their compliance program from bank underwriters.

Margaret Hambleton, who is the Vice President for Corporate Compliance and Chief Compliance Officer for Dignity Health (and current president of the Society of Corporate Compliance and Health Care Compliance Association), is no stranger to this relatively new phenomenon.  She’s been through the process more than once and in this podcast shares her experience.

Thankfully, as she reports, it’s not an interrogation and is generally a very collegial process with questions provided in advance.  Listen in as she explains how the discussions typically go, how best to prepare for them, and some of the side benefits of the process.