The Compliance Revolution: How Compliance Needs to Change to Survive

Chapter 6Good Governance

And the reality:

The living men that I hate,

The dead man that I loved,

The craven man in his seat,

The insolent unreproved—

And no knave brought to book

Who has won a drunken cheer—

The witty man and his joke

Aimed at the commonest ear,

The clever man who cries

The catch cries of the clown,

The beating down of the wise

And great Art beaten down.

—W. B. Yeats, The Fisherman (1916)

Governance is the framework of systems and controls that shapes and determines ethics and culture and ensures the delivery of the businesses' aims and strategy. With the board at its head, and including possibly many levels of management, it is a framework engaged in providing direction and leadership, assurance, strategy, measurement, and monitoring control procedures. Some of the components have an important function as checks-and-balances functions, such as the standing board committees. External reporting, where appropriate, is usually coordinated by the company secretarial department and is concerned with accountability and transparency for shareholders, investors, customers, and other stakeholders. Taken as a whole, governance forms a complex outward-looking and inward-facing structure. For the sake of brevity, our focus here will be on those aspects that relate to compliance and regulators.

Why Does Governance Matter?

Corporate governance is central to the effective and efficient running of any organisation or business. It directs and shapes everything that comprises ...