Internal controls are a key tool to operationalize your third party risk management program. Initially, a compliance practitioner should perform an analysis of any third party representative to provide insight into the pattern of dealings with such third parties and, therefore, the areas where additional controls should be considered. The basic internal controls, that should be a part of any financial controls system, include some or all of the following:

There should also be internal control needs based on activities with third party representatives. These could include some or all of the following internal controls:

While that may appear to be an overly exhaustive list, there were four significant controls the compliance practitioner implement initially. They include: (1) Delegation of Authority (DOA); (2) Maintenance of the vendor master file; (3) Contracts with third parties; and (4) Movement of cash / currency.

A DOA should reflect the impact of corruption risk including both transactions and geographic location so that a higher level of approval for matters involving third parties and for fund transfers and invoice payments to countries outside the US would be required inside an organization. Often, a DOA is prepared without much thought given to FCPA risks. Unfortunately once a DOA is prepared it is not used again until it is time to update for personnel changes. Moreover, it is often not available, not kept current, and/or did not define authority in a way even the approvers could understand it. Therefore it is incumbent that the DOA be integrated into a company’s accounts payable (AP) processing system in a manner that ensures all high-risk vendor invoices receive the proper visibility. To achieve this you should identify the vendors within the vendor master file so payments are flagged for the appropriate approval BEFORE they are paid.

Furthermore if a DOA is properly prepared and enforced, it can be a powerful preventive tool for FCPA compliance. For example, consider a wire transfer of $X between company bank accounts in the US might require approval by the Finance Manager at the initiating