Pandemic Should Expand Compliance Officer’s Role

The pandemic has created an opportunity to leverage the huge potential of combining ethics, enterprise risk management and compliance. These are interdependent functions, but in many corporations they are placed in stand-alone silos. This is an unhealthy situation, which becomes glaringly obvious in a crisis like Covid-19, according to Dr. Klaus Moosmayer, writing in the FCPA blog. He believes that the compliance officer should play a decisive and expanded role in corporate affairs. Over time, compliance officers have designed and implemented the recognized three pillars of an effective compliance system: prevent, detect and respond, including monitoring and remediation. That system is equally valid for all risk functions in a corporation, including health, safety and emergency management. Risk-aware and crisis-resilient compliance officers can rightfully claim consideration for the lead or at least the coordination of an integrated risk management system in corporations. Covid-19 is a unique challenge, but it is also an opportunity to bring ethics, risk and compliance together. If this is achieved in full alignment with the General Counsel as a peer and partner, the assurance level of the company will increase significantly.