* Open Compliance & Ethics Group Web site
While I was researching the work of auditor Dan Swanson for a previous column, I explored the Web site of the Open Compliance & Ethics Group (OCEG) and found much of value for readers of this column.
According to the mission statement, “OCEG is a nonprofit organization that uniquely seeks to help organizations drive performance by enhancing corporate culture and integrating governance, risk management, and compliance processes via:
* Guidelines and Standards
– Summary of legal requirements
– Process guidelines & standards to address requirements
– Technical standards (key systems and integration points)
– Both high-level and detailed guidance
* Evaluation Criteria & Benchmarks
– Program effectiveness (both design and operation)
– Program performance
– Continuous program benchmarking
* Community of Practice
– Online space where professionals can collaborate
– Online tools & resources
– Groups to discover, create, and evolve
– Forums for discussion and exchange.”
After joining the OCEG as a (free) registered user by filling out a simple and non-invasive form, I updated my profile with information on my areas of interest so that I could receive news updates tailored to my particular interests.
Categories included areas such as culture (ethical, governance, risk, human capital), organization and personnel (leadership and champions, oversight, operational, strategic), process (technology), functions (internal audit, finance, risk management, operations, IT, and so on), size and structure (small business, government agency, nonprofit…), risk area (anti-corruption, governance, intellectual property, information management…), industry and geography. I’ll be interested to see what kinds of news I begin to receive with this profile.
I downloaded and reviewed “OCEG Foundation v1” (the “Red Book”) as a PDF file and found it to be a superb free resource weighing in at a substantial 272 pages. It was last updated on Oct. 26. The list of sponsors includes well-known corporations such as Dell, Deloitte, DuPont, Ernst & Young, Microsoft, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Roche, Staples, Sun, Unilever, Wachovia and many others. The Executive Advisory Board and the Steering Committee include CEOs and COOs, attorneys, association directors, university presidents, professors and politicians.
Scott Mitchell, Chairman and CEO of OCEG, writes in his foreword as follows (I have added expansions of acronyms [ ] and pointers to Web resources):
“The Framework describes processes and practices that organizations can adopt to address a range of governance, legal and regulatory requirements while promoting a strong internal environment and culture. The OCEG Framework incorporates many existing standards and official guidance including the U.S. Federal Sentencing Guidelines, COSO [Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission] Internal Control, and ISO 9000. OCEG also incorporates elements of powerful business performance enhancement techniques such as Six Sigma.
The Framework identifies and summarizes key legal requirements and then establishes core and additional practices to assist in meeting these requirements. Importantly, the OCEG Framework translates these laws and standards (and the sometimes cryptic guidance that accompanies them) into specific, practical, and actionable business practices.
The OCEG Framework uses a unified and structured approach, with specific tools to increase program alignment with business strategy, while lowering the total cost of compliance (TCC). By adopting this approach, an organization is able to efficiently benchmark against established OCEG criteria and peers in the OCEG community of practice.”
In the page labeled 14 in the text (PDF file page 19), the authors have a section labeled “Relying on Trusted Sources.” In addition to those mentioned above, they enumerate the following sources of foundation-level information:
* Department of Justice “Thompson” MemoSarbanes-Oxley ActSecurities & Exchange rulesNASDAQ & NYSE) rules
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* Stock exchange (
* Various U.S. regulatory agency guidelines
In addition to the basic guidelines of the Red Book, OCEG provides extensive resources for specific “domains” such as human resources, general management, labor relations, discrimination, harassment, hiring and retention, employee terminations, whistleblowing and retaliation, risk management, employee information privacy and so on.
In my next column, I’ll explore the Red Book’s approach to risk management.
