Nearly every settlement agreement entered into by the government and an entity has required that the entity remediate their corporate compliance and ethics programs.  Not surprising given their roots in the United States Sentencing Guidelines. 

About half of those agreements require an independent corporate monitor to verify and oversee the entity's compliance with such remediation and in my previous and current corporate monitorship experience, the corporate compliance and ethics programs of the entities I monitored was the primary focus.

Corporate compliance and ethics is a relatively new and specialized field.  While many professional service providers (CPAs, lawyers, etc.) who may at some point serve as a corporate monitor may have some tangential experience with it through their service to clients, not that many have a comprehensive and detailed understanding of it.  With that area being such a primary focus, it seems that such experience should be a necessary qualification for corporate monitors.

As my business continues to specialize in the area of corporate monitoring, I felt it of utmost importance to the future companies and government agencies that I might serve in the role of a corporate monitor that my experience and knowledge in this area was formally recognized.  This is not only important from the sense of establishing greater capability and credibility, but in being able to better advise and serve the monitored entities more efficiently and effectively.

While there are several entities that serve the field of corporate compliance and ethics, I found that the Society of Corporate Compliance & Ethics seemed to be the thought leader.  They not only provide practical world-class training and resources to compliance professionals, but offer a serious certification as a Certified Compliance and Ethics Professional (CCEP), which has strict requirements to qualify for and requires that candidates take a proctored exam that combines the right mix of academic and practical compliance knowledge and experience consistent with what one would expect of an expert in the field.  I fully expect that the CCEP designation will become the primary recognized designation in this field, much like the CFE has become in the world of fraud investigations, and I am proud to now have that designation as part of my credentials.

For more information about the SCCE and CCEP designation, please visit the SCCE Website.