The first wave of Form SD filings has come and gone, leaving us with more insight into supply chains and manufacturing processes than most of us ever wanted, yet much uncertainty about the actual sources of the conflict minerals in question. Not surprisingly, most companies that filed a Form SD were unable to confirm whether their conflict minerals came from the Democratic Republic of Congo (or its neighbors) or whether their purchase of conflict minerals financed armed conflict.

Many filers are understandably burnt out on the whole process and are happy to forget about it until the next filing deadline (May 31, 2015). And those lucky enough to have determined that no Form SD filing was required in 2014 may be tempted to forget about the issue altogether. Regardless, however, of your company’s 2014 status (filer or non-filer), forgetting is not acceptable.

Business operations are fluid. Product lines change, as do manufacturing processes, suppliers and product uses. Furthermore, chances are that additional work must be done to follow up on incomplete or non-existent responses to your “reasonable country of origin” inquiry or to fill other holes in your inaugural conflict minerals review process.

Every company must design and implement an effective system to continually capture all information relevant to a new or updated Form SD filing and then get that information into the right hands so that required disclosures will be accurate and timely. If you wait until a few weeks before next spring’s filing deadline, it will be too late.

Action steps…

• Train all appropriate employees (for example, business unit heads) to proactively and promptly pass along any changes in operations that could trigger the conflict minerals rules.
• If your company manufactures or contracts to manufacture products, systemize an ongoing process for obtaining all necessary information from your suppliers.
• Update your internal controls to document your conflict minerals compliance process.
• Update your disclosure controls and procedures to ensure timely preparation and filing of any necessary disclosures.

The conflict minerals rule (Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act) is under fire from all sides, from human rights advocates who believe it does not go far enough to staunch opponents such as the U.S Chamber of Commerce and numerous Republican lawmakers. While there’s a chance (currently hard to quantify) that the law could be modified or repealed by Congress at some point, unless and until that happens companies have no choice but to remain vigilant and compliant. Doing so requires ongoing, effective compliance processes.