Does the Compliance Officer Have Adequate “Clout,” Resources, and Independence?
The 2010 amendments to the Guidelines provide that the compliance officer must be given “direct access to the governing authority or an appropriate subgroup of the governing authority.”[21] There is some debate surrounding whether this provision of the Guidelines requires the compliance officer to report directly to the board or whether the compliance officer must merely have access to the board. In all events, the compliance officer should meet with the board at least annually and also annually meet with the independent directors in executive sessions. Less controversial, the compliance officer must be given “adequate resources” and “appropriate authority” to perform his compliance duties. This means that the compliance function must have personnel and financial resources commensurate with the company’s size and risk profile. If portions of the compliance function are delegated to other areas of the company (often Legal or Human Resources), the company should formally memorialize that
Related Questions
- Can users claim audit independence and separation of function by using Congruity Inspector for compliance preparation and self-auditing?
- What resources and technical expertise do BatteryBack have to enable them to achieve compliance?
- What can the Quality Assurance and Compliance Officer (Special Needs) do?
