Some business experts have urged corporate organisations to embrace strong strategic compliance across their operations to deepen their footprint and business sustainability.
They said this on Thursday in Lagos during the Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie, Investigation, Compliance and Ethics (ICE) 2018 Academy, themed; “Best Practices from the frontline.”
Mrs Lolade Ososami, Partner, Udo Udoma & Belo Osagie, said that any serious organisation must uphold compliance as investigation into business activities was on the rise globally.
She noted that investigations stemmed from the drive to recover lost assets and increase revenue base of both government and corporate organisations.
Ososami, an expert in taxation and corporate advisory services, said that businesses must be prepared to be compliant rather than wait to be sanctioned.
Similarly, Mrs Adeola Sunmola, Partner, Udo Udoma & Belo Osagie, said that increased scrutiny of businesses, especially those with holding companies abroad, must sustain compliance to policies within their respective jurisdiction.
According to her, businesses need to be aware of their compliance level, where there have been breaches and what they need to do to avoid legal actions.
“There is an increase in cross-border investigation of employee misconduct which affect the corporate entity.
“Investigations of sexual misconduct in workplace and pre-transaction due diligence in mergers and acquisitions will not diminish,” she said.
She said businesses would continue to face pressure to develop an accountability framework, which mandated the investigation of breaches of compliance programmes.
Adesuwa Dozie, General Counsel, General Electric (GE) Africa, said that compliance was key to sustainability of businesses and should be embedded in the operations and conducts of organisations.
Also, Pattison Boleigha, Chief Conduct and Compliance Officer, Access Bank, said that regulators, practitioners and operators have all agreed that there was more to be done beyond meeting regulatory credentials requirements, but more with conduct of the players.
He said that there was need for regulators to craft regulations that would allow innovations to take place for financial intermediations. (NAN)
