CEP Magazine (August 2020)
In June, the Department of Justice made small changes to the Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs guidance document that reflect the department’s growing understanding of how compliance programs should work and how to investigate whether a company has established an effective program.
The previous update, in April 2019, was organized around three fundamental questions:
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“Is the corporation’s compliance program well designed?“
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“Is the program being applied earnestly and in good faith?” In other words, is the program being implemented effectively?
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“Does the corporation’s compliance program work” in practice?
This most recent update makes changes throughout the document to fundamental questions prosecutors can pose to compliance professionals to ascertain the effectiveness of their program. The guidance is also intended for compliance professionals looking for a template to work from.