How does your ethics and compliance function compare?

August 8, 2018

Does your organisation have a stand-alone ethics and compliance function? What is the reporting line? How often does your organisation carry out due diligence checks on third parties? Does your organisation have an ABC-specific risk assessment progress?

These are just some of the questions posed at the compliance programme benchmarking session moderated by GoodCorporation at the C5 Anti-Corruption conference in London this summer.

Leo Martin led a discussion with Stephanie Accousti, Associate General Counsel, Compliance at Weatherford and Gareth Tipton, Group Director, Ethics, Compliance & Governance at BT Group, to explore how compliance programmes are evolving to deal with multiple risks.

Delegates were asked specific questions on compliance programmes, covering areas such as structure, resource allocation, reporting and responsibilities.

Here are some of the most interesting findings.

  • 17% of organisations didn’t have a stand-alone ethics and compliance function. With the multiple risks faced by so many businesses this seemed unexpectedly high.
  • 33% of those responsible for ethics and compliance report to the CEO or a board committee with 47% reporting to the general counsel.
  • 33% had no ABC-specific risk assessment process yet in place, although this includes 13% of the respondents with a process in development. With the increase in both the penalties and likelihood of prosecution, an effective risk assessment process should be an essential part of most organisations’ anti-corruption procedures.
  • When it came to whistleblowing, 37% did not promote their whistleblowing line to suppliers and third parties. The polling also found that 43% do not publish any statistics in relation to whistleblowing. Best practice is moving towards the promotion of whistleblowing lines to external as well as internal stakeholders as well as encouraging more analysis and reporting of the calls made.

GoodCorporation has an established methodology for assessing and benchmarking ethics and compliance programmes. Our metrics allow companies to test the strength and weaknesses of their practices and procedures, comparing performance against our benchmark data.

Contact us for more information.