Most HR departments around the world have yet to embrace responsibility for policing corporate crime. This is in spite of G8 countries agreeing to an action plan to enhance transparency of corporate ownership and avoid the misuse of companies for conducting illicit activities.
But of course corporate crime goes well beyond such concerns as money laundering. An International Foreign Bribery Taskforce has been recently established and the OECD continues in its efforts to combat tax evasion. Spain’s new criminal code includes penalties for lack of diligence on the part of officers and directors who jeopardise the interests of creditors by entering into non-permitted risks.
Of course, many of these issues will be seen as primarily the concern of finance departments, but corporate manslaughter is a critical health and safety issue. Cyber attacks on companies are rising and these put personnel data directly at risk. Meanwhile an increasing incidence of fraud and associated internal computer crimes calls for urgent action to suspend and investigate gross misconduct.