SME’s & Compliance: A Toolkit from OECD
One of the great challenges in compliance & ethics and in law enforcement in general is how we reach the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).??The OECD’s Working Group on Bribery has focused on this for some time, and recently issued a very helpful report on this subject in the context of preventing bribery:??OECD (2022),?Toolkit for raising awareness and preventing corruption in SMEs, OECD Business and Finance Policy Papers, OECD Publishing, Paris,?https://doi.org/10.1787/19e99855-en.?(One sign to me that this would be valuable was that my friend, France CHAIN , Senior Legal Analyst at OECD, had a guiding hand in its production. That is a sign of diligent and valuable work.)??
The OECD is right to bring its resources and insights to bear on this difficult area.??The toolkit notes what I have also seen:??a lack of interest among SMEs.??While many explain this in terms of the SMEs not having the resources, I remain convinced it has more to do with a lack of interest among the SME managers.??So I find great value in the Toolkit’s suggestions on factors that could motivate SMEs:??incentives provided by government, and requirements from possible customers among the larger companies.??I also like the idea of collective action among SMEs, but even this needs to be backed up by government.??
Among the resources for SME cited by the OECD Toolkit is a guide I wrote for SCCE back in 2010,?Murphy, A Compliance & Ethics Program on a Dollar a Day: How Small Companies Can Have Effective Programs (SCCE; 2010)?https://www.corporatecompliance.org/Portals/0/PDFs/Resources/ResourceOverview/CEProgramDollarADay-Murphy.pdf.??Aside from wanting to provide practical ideas for SMEs I also wanted to highlight the fact that there were enough resources for any SME that wanted to address the risk of violating the law, and that the single most important element was not a matter of money:??it was management commitment.??Without that, no amount of money can make compliance efforts effective. With that commitment, however, a company can find ways to ensure ethics and compliance are part of its culture.??
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My one regret about this very valuable tool is that those in other areas who need this type of guidance, such as antitrust enforcers, will not read it because it is outside of their silo.??But this Toolkit provides guidance and examples that are valuable for reaching SMEs with the compliance message in all areas of the law.?
Corporate compliance, ethics and privacy professional. Professor, board advisor and CECO sounding board.
2 年Thanks for bringing the excellent resource to light. Your point about caring is noted, but making advice and resources tailored for SMEs who have not only limited butdget but also possibly less SMEs (as in subject matter experts) at their disposal can also be a barrier. A toolkit like this may make an easier pathway. Your comment on other areas line antitrust/competition is also well noted, but let’s be optimistic that other risk area regulators will take note - surely many of them follow you!