COMMENTARY ON THE OECD GOOD PRACTICE GUIDANCE ON INTERNAL CONTROLS, ETHICS AND COMPLIANCE

With the February 2010 publication of its Good Practice Guidance on Internal Controls, Ethics and Compliance (“Good Practice Guidance” or “the Guidance”) as Annex II to the November 26, 2009 Further Recommendations for Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions (“the 2009 Recommendations”), the OECD, through its anti-bribery Working Group (“the OECD Working Group”) has created an important blueprint for anti-bribery compliance programs. The Good Practice Guidance sets out in helpful detail the elements of a good anti-bribery compliance approach. From the standpoint of ethics and compliance practitioners, the Good Practice Guidance provides additional support to existing best practice in the field and validates a proactive, practical, risk-oriented strategy for detecting and preventing misconduct in organizations. Although, on its face, the Good Practice Guidance speaks primarily to foreign bribery, most of the provisions could be readily applied to ethics and compliance programs on a much broader basis as well. View More