Compliance

For decades, health care costs have outpaced the rate of inflation. Faced with a non-deductible Excise Tax on high-cost health care plans, many employers are re-evaluating their benefits strategies to both hold costs down and attract and retain top talent. Enter private exchanges, the benefits of which include more predictable costs and health care solutions aligned with consumers' needs.

Louis Berger International has agreed to pay $17 million and retain a compliance monitor for three years to settle bribery charges. At the same time, the Department of Justice handed down judgment on two Berger executives. The case, which was settled a few weeks ago, raises questions about the DOJ's handling of similar cases -- specifically regarding the consistency of...

There is a place for social media in your compliance program. Using sites such as Facebook and Twitter to broadcast your company's commitment to compliance can be effective, but apps specific to FCPA and anti-bribery/anti-corruption compliance are also worth exploring. Tom Fox opens the discussion about how to integrate social media into your compliance program.

Compliance officers must rely on partners outside the function to advance their goals -- collaborations with finance or general counsel spring to mind. Leaning on staff without in-depth knowledge of compliance can lead to some potentially serious problems, but the need for partnership remains. So how do you build a global network and maintain a strong compliance program?

This year's Anti-Bribery and Corruption Benchmarking Report was recently released, and the study, authored jointly by Kroll and Compliance Week, left contributing author Richard Bistrong with quite a few burning questions. So how has the plight of the compliance practitioner changed over the past year? Kevin Braine, Kroll's Managing Director of EMEA Compliance, provides clarity.

Whatever your company's stance on to whom the Corporate Compliance Officer should report, what's not in question is that the CCO must be able to act from a place of authority. Strip the CCO of his power and influence, and your compliance program is bound to fail. Tom Fox walks us through five key indicators that a company is setting...

The merits of maintaining a culture of ethics and compliance are obvious -- and many. And yet some companies devote little attention to ethics and compliance, focusing in stead on financial performance (though the two concepts certainly aren't mutually exclusive). Here are our signs of a weak culture of ethics and compliance. A primer on what not to do, you...

When the compliance function isn't fully integrated into a company's DNA, there's bound to be a clash of priorities. In these cases, it's often financial objectives that take precedence. As we all know by now -- and pardon the throwback to Compliance 101 -- that simply won't do. Paper compliance programs don't cut the mustard. DOING compliance is where it's...

Author Jim DeLoach explores four themes for implementing enterprise risk management (ERM), noting that executives often ask two questions about ERM: “Where do we start?” and “What do we do differently?” These two questions demand a pragmatic response, which DeLoach provides in this compilation of thought leadership articles.

A strong tone at the top is essential to maintaining a culture of compliance. Equally as important, however, is tone in the middle. If your middle managers don't understand or aren't on board with a commitment to operate with integrity and in compliance, the message they project to their teams won't likely be reflective of the organization's values. Are your...

There's no doubt that there are benefits to bribery; if there weren't, corruption wouldn't be such an issue. It's just as plain that the costs of bribery can be great when individuals or companies are caught in the act. Michael Volkov posits that the most rational decision organizations can make when tempted with bribery -- despite the potential gains --...

Newsflash: compliance programs are only effective when they're being put into practice. Having a paper compliance program is no kind of defense... just like claiming to be abstinent while acting otherwise didn't keep Bristol Palin from her latest pregnancy. And like Ms. Palin, some will find there are consequences of SAYING you're adhering to the compliance program but not walking...