Corporate Compliance Report
Companies that are being established as well as companies struggling with compliance issues need some method of dealing with governance. The method of handling corporate governance and compliance issues is to implement an enterprise risk management system (ERM). The system should examine alternatives and incorporate the suitable processes that fit into the company's structure. Developing internal control and corporate governance procedures is the foundation for such a system. Developing these procedures include identifying and putting into practice compliance steps and processes. The company will need to implement preventative internal controls that incorporate risk mitigation. This segment of the process includes utilizing systems and benchmarking organizations for compliance techniques. Lastly, the company will need to determine which techniques to put into practice in its compliance attempt. The company will begin to implement its enterprise risk management system by developing an appropriate internal control and corporate governance system.
Developing Internal Control and Corporate Governance System
Establishing internal control and corporate governance system helps ensure corporate compliance. Significant strategic planning is needed when developing a functional internal control and corporate governance system. This strategic planning includes developing preventive, detective, and corrective controls to cover the aspects of the corporate compliance.
The first step or control procedure a company should undertake when developing a governance system is developing preventive controls to avert a possible compliance violation. Preventive controls include developing guidelines and responsibilities to conduct reviews of ethics policies, conflict-of-interest procedures, and updates in corporate compliance procedures that will protect and position the company to prevent a possible compliance violation. An associate of the company's preventative control measures include comparing the organization's current conflict-of-interest policy with industry regulations on a regular basis, reviewing recent government filings, and evaluating the company's current compliance program. If these control steps are proactively taken regularly in the organization, the company will have taken preventative steps to avoid a potential future compliance violation (Maltz, Nov/Dec 2003).
The second step or control procedure a company should take to promote corporate compliance is a detective control. Detective controls will enable the company to detect if a possible compliance violation occurred or is at-risk for a violation occurring. The company will assign an associate or group of associates the responsibilities of taking detective control measures in regard to compliance regulations. Detective control responsibilities include reporting promptly and addressing objectively any compliance violations, making sure a prescribed observation program is in place to make certain the organization adheres to its code of ethics and compliance regulations, and formally reviewing and aligning company compliances with government regulatory compliances.
Compliance is pertaining to the adherence to laws and regulations that the company is subject. Raven Head Ranch did not follow this objective when they were writing checks approved by the same person and putting them in unapproved projects, for example the Volunteer Fire Department. The VFD had been receiving funds from misappropriate accounts for three years. Fifty individual disbursements were taken from the community checking account and had no proper recording, just charged to random accounts, which breaks the regulations and laws of proper accounting. One of the BoD members, Sam, was not even a resident of RHR and was on board supervising the employees with no legal right
The specific obligations in this case would include monitor corporate governance activities and compliance with organization policies, and assess audit committee effectiveness and compliance with regulations
The SOX act section 404 requires that the auditor assess the company’s management of internal controls and report on it. The act requires that a company include a copy of the internal controls in the year end annual report. All financial statements must be certified by a company’s management. (Coustan, 2004)
...anges to aspects that are affected by any of these forces in order to reflect current practices and requirements. Furthermore, the company will ensure that the compliance program is effective in making employees and managers abide by the ethics programs.
encourage honest and ethical conduct, including fair dealing and the ethical handling of conflicts of interest;
Explain the key steps that the company should take to ensure that employees follow the code of conduct.
Trevino, Linda Klebe, Gary Weaver and David Gibs. "Managing Ethics and Legal Compliance: What Works and What Hurts." 1 January 1999. Harvard Business Review.org. California Management Review. Web. 9 November 2013. .
Corporate governance implies governing a company/organization by a set of rules, principles, systems and processes. It guides the company about how to achieve its vision in a way that benefits the company and provides long-term benefits to its stakeholders. In the corporate business context, stake-holders comprise board of directors, management, employees and with the rising awareness about Corporate Social Responsibility; it includes shareholders and society as well. The principles which...
The purpose of the CMP is to solidify their organizational culture of integrity, ensuring that every person acts honestly and ethically in conducting everyday activities and making decisions. The CMP has three areas of focus: “The Compliance Management System, prevention of unlawful activities, and response to changes in regulations” (People 30). Throughout all departments are compliance teams that specialize in protecting the reputation of the company as well as individuals in the company through a process of “prevention, monitoring, and post-management” (People 30). Figure 1, below, is a graphic from the 2015 Samsung Electronics Sustainability Report, which illustrates how compliance management is incorporated throughout the organization (People
The objectives of operation, reporting, and compliance are represented in the column. Components are represented by the rows regarding the ERM. The third dimension is the entity’s organizational structure. It demonstrates clear how and how counteract low risk tolerance and high risk appetite. Risk reduction is obtained by facilitating effective internal control with a broad scope that reflects changes in the framework to risk management with ERM. The framework requires adaptability which enables flexibility due to a overlap of functions of identify, assessing, and responding to risks within operations, reporting, and compliance. Activities, information, communication should be monitored, evaluated, and identified for response are part of the ERM for effective and efficient risk management. The concept of risk appetite and risk tolerance is introduced because the identification of potential events affecting achievement can be managed. Also, the process requires communication, consultation before and monitoring and review after every decision or action (McNally, 2015). The financial principles to risk management are effective risk management creates value, integration, decision making, address uncertainty, systematic structure, and facilitated continuous improvement. The financial principles form effective and efficient management within a firm. Financial principles help ERM with risk
Although Hollate introduced a compliance program and code of conduct when it went public, the programs were put on “the back burner”. This outcome is not surprised for that the company does not pay attention to the programs. It is, therefore, important to “reinforce the values” and “employee a boundary system when actions are inconsistent with the code of conduct” for the purpose of early detection. Tyco provides a good example after its scandal, by initiating “mandatory annual compliance training for all its employees worldwide” and creating the Tyco Guide to Ethical Conduct to familiarize employees with company expectations and help them make ethical decisions. As tips is the most useful method for internal and external sources to detect frauds, the whistleblower hotline should be well communicated with encouragement on reporting any suspicious activity. In addition, to improve the effectiveness of the compliance program and code of conducts, Hollate should implement management monitoring and evaluation on a regular
The report highlight’s the essential aspects of the control process. In terms of concurrent feedback as well as feed forward, that companies can use to implement so that they can have better outcomes in terms of efficiency of the business. Consequently the report underlines as well as emphasizes of the many contributing factors of these controls. The authors have contrasting views on the control models of an organization, they believe that in order to create an effective control process, and organization first needs to determine its strategic plans for instance in terms of what it is and where is it going.
Control and system design to ensure that the activities and processes of the organization are conducted in accordance with the corporate rules and objectives
Overall, the company is having ineffective controls regarding different departments and in the whole organization. An effective internal audit department should be established within the organization which should test the effectiveness of these controls on regular basis and make it sure that all controls are working effectively and efficiently with the different departments of the organization. Also the Internal auditor should implement the most effective processes and measures to prevent and detect the fraud, corruption and non compliance with the laws and regulations in the organization. Establishment of internal audit committee would be helpful in this regard which comprises of executive and non executive directors.
Corporate governance is the policies, rules and regulations, by which a corporation shapes the way corporate officers, managers, and stakeholders perform their duties to create wealth for the entity. According to Lipman (2006), good corporate governance helps to prevent corporate scandals, fraud, and potential civil and criminal liability of the organization (p. 3). Most companies, whether formal or informal, have some type of corporate governance for the management to follow. Large companies will have a formal set of rules and regulations, while small companies frequently have spoken rules often due to lack time to form any type of formal policies. There is often no corporate governance with family owned companies.