O Compliance , despite being a program of integrity as much as recent in business, one of the first documents about corporate governance in the world was the Cadbury report, prepared in the United Kingdom in 1992, which addressed two fundamental values of the current governance model: the responsible accountability and the highest transparency .
In Brazil, in 1995, the Brazilian Institute of Corporate Governance (IBGC), responsible for the “Code of Best Practices of Corporate Governance”, was founded. Already in 2013, Law 12,846 was published, called Law to Combat Corruption or Clean Company Law, where, for the first time there was a provision to reduce pecuniary sanctions for companies that adopted integrity programs. Decree 8.420/15 which regulated that law and began to provide for integrity programs, which consists of its article 41, “the set of internal mechanisms and procedures and integrity, audit and encouragement to report irregularities and In the effective application of code of ethics and conduct, policies and guidelines in order to detect and remedy deviations, fraud, irregularities and illicit acts against public administration, national or foreign”.
Both state -owned companies and legal entities that enter into a public administration contract should develop compliance programs . All segments must prepare for the new reality of acting in accordance, both to fulfill what has been imposed by laws and to avoid disputes, liability formation and properly take care of the company's image and social function.
One of the main advantages of implementing a integrity program is to make the existence of mechanisms viable for rapid identification of violation of laws, with the possibility of prompt response by the organization, preventing that harmful conducts are perpetuated and that those losses assume larger proportions.
Cade lists the benefits for implementing the program, namely: risk prevention, early identification of problems, unlawful recognition in other organizations, reputational benefit, employee awareness and cost reduction and contingencies.
In addition, there are studies that refer to the cost-effectiveness of the program implementation is that for each U $$ 1 spent, U $$ 5 is saved with the mitigation of risk, according to Schilder, former member of the Council of Administration of the Dutch Central Bank.
O Compliance is one of the fundamental principles of corporate governance, and there is a need for adequacy of internal routines and legal and administrative requirements, adoption of inspection mechanisms in order to minimize risks, both with the Advisory in financial, corporate operations and leakage of confidential information, for example.
The implementation of an integrity program should also be applied to small and medium -sized companies, having as essential pillars the high management support (“Tone from the Top”); Risk Mapping/Management; policies and codes of conduct; training and communication; Channel of complaints; investigation; Monitoring and Audit and DUE DILIGENCE .
O Compliance is an increasingly important subject and today has become a requirement for companies to become increasingly competitive and, once the program is implemented, positively impact on everyday and practical competitors within a company. In addition, the existence of a compliance program can be exalted as a strategic part of the company, because since it is based on the values of acting in conformity, integrity and ethics, credibility and confidence is transmitted to the your customers.
Laura Nicoloso
