FIFA

All four of my children play soccer, and with television’s ability to telecast global games, it has never been easier to follow the world’s top players. FIFA, the global administration organization for soccer, recently went through a significant corruption scandal, which included agreements/shell companies to create an appearance of legitimacy for illicit payments (bank accounts in tax havens, foreign bank accounts, bulk cash smuggling, etc.). Sepp Blatter, the leader of FIFA, stated, “I know many people hold me ultimately responsible, but I cannot monitor everyone all the time. If people want to do wrong, they will also try to hide it.”

Can leaders monitor the employees of their organizations? In the US, the SOX law requires that a CFO is now responsible for signing off on all documents, essentially putting him/her in charge of monitoring all employees who created the documents. This effort is to put in controls to monitor the hubris and arrogance of corrupted leaders.

Does your company have controls to monitor for corruption?