Having a compliance program doesn’t prevent corporate hypocrisy

Ibrahim Yeku (yekuduke@knowyourcustomer.ng) is founder of knowyourcustomer.ng, based in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.

The best way an organization can mean what it says and say what it means is through purposeful actions. However, where actions do not match words, it becomes a clear case of corporate hypocrisy—that is, a corporation sets a double standard that seems to prioritize compliance but in a real sense has failed to demonstrate commitment to compliance program implementation and administration.

The recent trend of compliance violation by some “too big to fail” organizations around the world is a call to question the organizations that have committed to meeting the highest ethical and legal standards. How else can we explain the involvement of major auditing firms in well-known cases of compliance violations? And how is it that the organizations that should have known better and could positively influence others are the ones being caught in compliance complicity? Here, we explore how organizations fall victim to this practice.

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