Research conducted by the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE) and the Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA) found that 88 per cent of compliance professionals rejected mixing the functions, with several respondents saying that both jobs had different responsibilities and were full time positions. And four out of five of the 800 compliance professionals surveyed were opposed to corporate counsel serving in the compliance function.
Compliance should bypass legal
The report stated that government enforcement authorities backed the findings with several recent settlements requiring the compliance officer to report to corporate leadership, rather than to the general counsel’s office – which gave the compliance officer much needed independence and empowerment to carry out his or her duties.
Different mandates
According to SCCE and HCCA Chief executive officer Roy Snell, ‘Compliance professionals in the trenches have long understood the distinction between the very different mandates of legal and compliance, and the inherent conflicts and lack of rigour that can arise when a General Counsel also attempts to manage the organisation’s compliance and ethics response.’
The SCCE and HCCA are non-profit professional member associations serving more than 10,000 compalinace and ethics professionals globally.
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