Compliance, legal and resources

Abstract

The compliance function is often faced with difficulties of work overload, associated with random delegation of duties by the management board (or their administration) and by other senior management, leading to a constant increase of the scope of work for compliance, while working with equal or sometimes even reduced staff and a lack of other resources. At the same time, there are also gaps in the companies' understanding of what the duties and responsibilities of the compliance function are supposed to be, and how our role differentiates from legal and other functions in practice. While compliance professionals rightfully understand their work as risk-based, cross process and as a mixture of advisory-controlling independent activity, others may think of it as more linear and narrower, legalistic, and silo-based. While some view compliance as an organizational silo, where a certain area of expertise is limited to a specific, disconnected department with fixed, narrow boundaries, although it concerns the company as a whole, such business conduct and does not lead to integration and cooperation, which the compliance function should definitely strive towards. This article discusses these challenges in more details and presents proven practical approaches for facing them effectively.

Keywords

• compliance
• legal
• risk
• corporate governance
• internal control system
• effective management