What is the Compliance Officer?
When we talk about the Compliance Officer we refer a person who works in a company as a mechanism to fight against corporate criminality and more specifically against major corporate corruption scandals. You can read more about that role in our article «Ley Whistleblowers».
There are different definitions when it comes to explaining what Compliance Officer is. The World Compliance Association considers it to be:
A set of procedures and good practices that organizations adopt in order to «identify and classify the operational and legal risks they face and establish internal mechanisms to prevent, manage, control and react to them».
Levels of compliance:
There are different levels of compliance
- Compliance with External Standards: These are the standards that are imposed on the company.
- Internal control systems: These have to be put in place to ensure that external standards are met. For example, making sure that all workers know how to act to avoid breaking a law.
- Compliance with Internal Rules: these are the rules imposed by the company such as internal regulations or codes of conduct.
Functions:
We can identify among the functions of a Compliance Officer
- Identifying compliance risks
- Designing controls to protect the company from the risks that have been identified.
- Implementing these controls.
- Monitor and report on the controls implemented.
- Advise the company on the rules and controls to which it is subject.
In Spain, what extended this term was the publication of Ley Orgánica 5/2015, to introduce as exculpatory the adoption and effective implementation of criminal compliance programs, i.e. «organizational and management models that include the surveillance and control measures suitable to prevent crimes of the same nature or to significantly reduce the risk of their commission» (article 31 bis.2 and 4 of the Spanish Criminal Code).
At Moya&Emery we have an expert legal team in Compliance and Data Protection, two of the fundamental branches that large organizations need to comply with the regulations.
We are very proud to announce that on the 9th of June, our lawyer Carlos Tarancon will be talking about Compliance at the Expojoc event on Data Protection and Compliance for gaming halls.
If you wish to attend the event you can register here
https://www.expojoc.com/inscripcion/
