Sharie A. Brown of Foley & Lardner LLP, wrote U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for the August 2008 of Compliance Week and put forth five very good reasons why your anti-corruption compliance program still matters a lot.
- Effective programs mitigate fines and penalties
- Early detection allows early company solutions
- Trust is valuable
- Good controls help keep the playing field level
- Ethics is forever and possible universal
Trust is Valuable
Companies want to be trusted by their customers, partners, business community, regulatory authorities, and investors, among many others. Customers and investors regularly entrust companies with their financial future and their most private and valuable personal information, as well as their environmental health and safety. To the extent that companies fail to have adequate internal controls and anticorruption policies that prevent misconduct, companies are susceptible to serious violations that breach that trust. A more trustworthy competitor could very easily become the more profitable competitor.
