Governance, Integrity & Compliance - Commitment - Tone from the Top

Commitment from the higher management of the Corporation means "Walk The Talk" & "Appropriate Budget". 

Management and Shareholders have the duty to enforce and to comply with the Laws and the Company Policies. Compliance is a Board's issue.

1. Policies and Communication within and outside the Company.

Information: A zero-tolerance policy on corrupt practices must be clearly displayed within and outside the company

2. Budgeting:

Appropriated resources and proportional budget to Compliance activities and projects. The Top-Level commitment to banning corruption and the effectiveness of its Compliance Program will be measured by analysis of several factors, such as sectorial risk and area of activity, territoriality, kind of business, size of the company, and the resources and budget proportionated and directed to the Compliance Program.

3. Training:

All who are potentially exposed to corruption situations must be trained to understand what characterizes corruption, the risks associated with corruption and the best practices to prevent corruption. 

4. Tools:

Organizations must design and enforce processes* that are adapted to their structure and tailored to their specific corruption risk. It includes tools and control information of gathered data and events from Merges and Acquisitions pre and pos due diligences, third parties and collaborators due diligences and training. 

5. Control:

Appropriate controls must be carried out to ensure that the corruption-prevention policies are properly enforced.

6. Prevent X Cure.

Strategy and Independency of the Compliance Department.
The Compliance functions are entitled to oversee all company activities and participate on major decisions.
The most important development of the Compliance is to be able to Prevent fraud and non-compliant actions, therefore the Compliance personnel have to be involved in the business discussions before its implementation.

* Elements of the structure of a compliance program:

• Support and commitment from senior management

• Standards of conduct, policies and procedures

• Education and training of employees, and third parties.

• Recurrent risk assessment, including M&A.

• Reliable accounting records

• Internal controls

• Procedures to prevent fraud in bidding processes and within contracts with the public sector

• Compliance oversight

• Whistleblowing channel

Renata Fonseca de Andrade

Attorney at Law Brazil and USA -Anticorruption, Bribery & Compliance (ABC) Specialist
Chair of the Anticorruption & Compliance Committee of OAB/SP Pinheiros
Member of the Compliance Committee at IASP
Member of the Compliance on Third Parties at Instituto Compliance Brasil
ABA SIL Member of the Anticorruption Practices Committee and the International Procurement Committee.