Kathleen Edmond of Best Buy Receives ERC’s Carol R. Marshall Award for Innovation in Corporate Ethics
Read press release at
http://www.ethics.org/news/marshall2013
Photo Gallery of ERC Policy Summit: Improving Corporate Conduct Through Pro-Compliance Enforcement Practices
ERC hosted a policy summit in Washington, DC for leading ethics experts and enforcement officials to discuss the positive impact of strong compliance standards in enhancing corporate ethical conduct. The summit, was held at the 20 F Street NW Conference Center with the purpose of initiating a dialogue between congressional offices, federal agency enforcement officials, debarment officials, members of the US Sentencing Commission, business leaders, judges, and others on the front lines of the fight against corporate misconduct.
A summary of the Summit is forthcoming.
Do Whistleblowers Need More Protection?
Watch Pat in HuffPost panel discussion on whistleblowing and retaliation.
Improving Corporate Conduct Through Pro-Compliance Enforcement Practices
The Ethics Resource Center (ERC) invites you to a policy summit in Washington, DC:
Improving Corporate Conduct Through Pro-Compliance Enforcement Practice
February 12, 2013
20 F Street Conference Center
located at 20 F St. NW, Washington, DC 20001
The Ethics Resource Center (ERC) invites you to a policy summit entitled Improving Corporate Conduct Through Pro-Compliance Enforcement Practices in Washington, DC on February 12, 2013. The purpose of the meeting is to initiate a dialogue between Congressional offices, federal agency enforcement officials, business leaders and others on the front lines of the fight against corporate misconduct.
Combating corporate misconduct is an extremely complex problem. Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations (or FSGO) codified the principle that corporate compliance/ethics programs should influence penalties in corporate cases. Yet, challenges remain in trying to reduce corporate crime through effective and consistent enforcement. The goal of this summit is to identify the enforcement issues that exist, to identify next steps, and to issue a public report summarizing the summit’s discussions.
To RSVP for this event, please contact Nick Fetzer at 571-480-4406 or at Nick@ethics.org.
Putting Whistleblowing in Perspective
Pleased to see the Huffington Post has included my blog post on their website. Please take a look!
(from left to right) Co-Chairs of the Ethics Resource Center’s 20th Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations (FSGO) Twentieth Anniversary Initiative, ERC President Patricia J. Harned and Compliance Systems Legal Group Partner Win Swenson, join Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer at the 20th Annual Ethics and Compliance Conference. (Photograph from 20th Annual Ethics & Compliance Conference (St. Louis, October 2-5). Used with permission of the Ethics & Compliance Officer Association - www.theECOA.org.)
Lessons Learned: Preventing Workplace Retaliation
The latest publication from the ERC Fellows, “Retaliation in the Workplace: Why it Matters and What Companies Can Do About It,” summarizes the discussion from the July 2012 ERC Fellows Program meeting. The report offers strategies on deterring workplace retaliation from ethics and compliance leaders themselves, and is designed in a way that makes it easy to distribute throughout an organization. Take a look for some recommendations from the ERC Fellows.
Good News - WPEA One Step Closer to Law
Last month we posted about the passing of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA) by the U.S. House, and the policy directive issued by President Obama which helps protect whistleblowers in the intelligence community and national security agency employees. Well, there is more encouraging news to share – on Tuesday, the Senate passed the bill as well, and it will now go to President Obama’s desk. After more than 10 years of advocating for the passing of this legislation, WPEA supporters are finally on the verge of seeing its fruition.
Encouraging Ethics News from Washington
Who says nothing happens in Washington during campaign season? In recent weeks, both the President and the U.S. House took important steps to make it easier for federal employees to report misconduct, without fear of retaliation.
Last week, President Obama issued what is called a “policy directive” which will create whistleblower protections for the intelligence community and national security agency employees. The directive calls for new protections for employees with security clearances so that they could report waste, fraud, and abuse internally without fear of retaliation.
The President’s actions followed passage of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA) in the U.S. House. In short, the bill creates new protections for federal employees (but excluded the intelligence and national security workers) who report waste, fraud and abuse from retaliation by supervisors.
These are both encouraging signs. Our National Business Ethics Survey (NBES) research showed a massive rise in the rate of retaliation cases in the public sector. Now, 22 percent of those private sector employees who reported misconduct say they experienced retaliation. A subsequent NBES report showed that 24 percent of Fortune 500® employees said they faced retaliation after reporting. Yes, they are private sector employees, but we suspect that if retaliation is on the rise in the private sector, it is likely growing in the public sector as well. Also, if companies see that is a priority of the federal government, they are more likely to address concerns about retaliation in their own offices.
The Washington Post reports the President’s policy directive gives the agencies have 270 days to certify that they have established a review process that “allows employees to appeal actions in conflict with the directive that affect their access to classified information.” Meanwhile, the House-approved version of WPEA goes back to the Senate, which approved a similar version of the bill in May, before it goes to the President for final signature.
We still need to see what the agencies come up with as well as if there are any more Congressional changes. The previous Congress came close to approving new whistleblower protections, but the bill didn’t come up for a final vote. There is important work still to be done, but this seems like a very positive step forward.
