NEW Complimentary White Paper Available:
Ethics, Compliance and the FAR: How New Requirements are Putting Ethics Front and Center for Companies with Federal Contracts
By: Joel Rogers, Director, Ethics & Corporate Compliance, Kaplan EduNeering
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 In 2007, federal contractors got a glimpse of their future compliance responsibilities when the Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (the FAR Councils) issued proposed rules about contractor codes of ethics and compliance programs.
Final rules were released on November 23, 2007 but they were clearly "rules in transition." Before the final rules were even printed in the Federal Register, the FAR Councils had issued another round of proposed rules that would change the compliance responsibilities of government contractors again...Read on and download the full white paper here >> |
Ethics in the News:
Management Ethics - Leading with Integrity
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Global capitalism must candidly face a fundamental problem of integrity: at the very heart of high performance lie fundamental forces that, if left unconstrained, cause corporate corruption.
Far-flung global enterprises face external pressures, which also create ever-present and illicit temptations. Many non-U.S. markets -- from Russia to Brazil, from the Middle East to Asia -- suffer from a weak rule of law, endemic corruption, and pervasive conflicts of interest. Yet these same markets are now a critical source of growth for global corporations. Whether that growth is organic or comes through acquisitions, new employees are predominantly local nationals. Not surprisingly, these individuals often come from cultural or business backgrounds that tolerate practices intolerable to a transnational company, such as bribes, shoddy accounting, and channeling business to family members.
In most of those nations, dealing with government is a major element of doing business because the state defines markets, procures goods and services, taxes income, and makes countless other decisions that decisively affect firm performance. Official extortion and misappropriation are clear and present dangers in places where the rule of law is tenuous at best.
Chief executives must take the lead in articulating their vision of a company that meets its targets while following the highest ethical standards.
Source: Ethical Corporation magazine (July 15, 2008)
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Ethical Q&A Scenario:
Doing Business with Local or State Government
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I have asked a former government employee who works for my team to review some contracts that she helped negotiate when she was in her government position. I have specifically told her not to communicate with anyone at the government about this, because I want to avoid any possible conflict of interest. Was that correct?
Maybe not. Former government employees are often prohibited from ever working on any particular matter that they worked on in their government capacities, even behind-the-scenes. So in this case the conflict of interest wasn't avoided, even though you attempted to do the right thing. We must always get advice from the General Counsel's office before assigning a former government employee to such work.
Source: Ethics Communication Coach, Q2-2008 |
