More than ever, if you are doing
business with the federal government, you need to be an ethical company and
have your policies reflect it. The
Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations
Council issued a final rule (FAR 3.10) effective December 24, 2007,
amending Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) to address requirements for a
contractor code of business ethics and conduct. Prior to this, there were no prior FAR
requirements for a contractor code of ethics or compliance program.
These changes impact tens of thousands
of companies – public, private, foreign and domestic. The new rule affects all new federal contracts
over $5 million with a duration exceeding 120 days (excluding commercial
contracts and contracts performed entirely outside of the US) and requires
contractors to have:
- A written code of ethics and
business conduct in place and distributed to applicable employees within
30 days of contract award
- An employee ethics and
compliance training program in place within 90 days of contract award and
- An internal
control system such as a hotline to
promote compliance with the code of ethics and business conduct within 90 days
of contract award.
These codes and systems extend
to applicable subcontractors and require:
* "Establishing
an internal reporting mechanism such as a hotline,
allowing for anonymity or confidentiality, such as an employee hotline" with procedures encouraging employees to make
reports of suspected instances of improper conduct
* Timely
discovery and disclosure of improper conduct
* Corrective
measures, including disciplinary action that are promptly implemented
* Periodic
reviews of company business practices, procedures, policies, and internal
controls for compliance with the contractor's code of ethics and business
conduct and the special requirements of government contracting
* Internal
and/or external audits
Ethical
Advocate’s (EA) government contractor whistleblower service represents the most
effective and recognized solution for reporting malfeasances, especially fraud.
The 2008 Association of Certified Fraud Examiner's (ACFE) Report to the Nation
indicates that (anonymous) employee tips are by far the most effective
method to discover risk events.
EA’s reporting
application has been certified as the country’s first and only Federal
Information Security Management Act (FISMA) compliant third-party hotline.
Compliance with FISMA is mandated by law for government contractors to protect
the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information and systems that
support the operations and assets of government agencies.
EA’s servers
are in one of the most (if not the most) secure hosting facility in the United
States and the only hosting company
focused on delivering secure, robust IT infrastructure management and hosting
services specifically engineered to help federal agencies (including DOJ, DOD,
and DHS) and commercial entities achieve the most stringent security posture.
EA provides government contractors worldwide, multi-lingual, 24/7/365 availability through its call center.
It is
critical for government contractors to ensure their ethics and compliance
programs are consistent with the new regulations. Having a
good compliance program is no longer simply a good idea—it’s the law.
Contact Ethical Advocate:
info@ethadv.com
888/ETHICS 6
www.ethicaladvocate.com