Audit committees have many concerns on their plates these days. But none, it seems, are as vexing and consequential as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Board directors see all the same headlines that compliance officers do, trumpeting the latest huge fines and regulatory settlements stemming from some violation of the FCPA. Worse, other governments are now also adopting the same no-nonsense attitude toward overseas bribery that U.S. regulators have pushed under the FCPA for years. As a result, boards’ worries about bribery risk and compliance programs have become that much larger and global in nature.
