Question | Yes/No | Details |
---|---|---|
General Background | ||
Is your company within a highly regulated industry? |
☐ Yes ☐ No | |
Does your company currently have regulatory permits?
|
☐ Yes ☐ No | |
Is your company/facility inspected regularly?
|
☐ Yes ☐ No | |
Regulatory/Legal Track Record | ||
Does your company have a history of criminal and/or regulatory violations? If so, review in detail to understand:
|
☐ Yes ☐ No | |
Were the past violations subject to any consent orders? |
☐ Yes ☐ No | |
Have other companies in your industry been investigated or indicted? If so, review the background:
|
☐ Yes ☐ No | |
Overview of Environmental Compliance Program | ||
Does your company have an environmental compliance program?
|
☐ Yes ☐ No | |
How large is your ethics and compliance program?
| ||
Gather and review the following information:
| ||
Does your company regularly document all functions of its ethics and compliance program?
|
☐ Yes ☐ No | |
Since a company’s true priorities are reflected in what it funds, monitors, and records, what specific items best demonstrate that your company has earned its “good corporate citizenship merit badge”? | ||
Has your company identified and assigned specific high-level personnel with the overall responsibility to oversee compliance?
|
☐ Yes ☐ No | |
What role does the board of directors play in overseeing the environmental compliance program?
| ||
Training and Communications | ||
Is your company’s compliance program communicated to all employees?
|
☐ Yes ☐ No | |
What involvement does the environmental compliance staff have in training and communication activities? (develops training materials, teaches, monitors hotline, develops new policies, etc.) | ||
Background Checks | ||
Does your company conduct criminal background checks?
|
☐ Yes ☐ No | |
Does your company conduct additional background checks?
|
☐ Yes ☐ No | |
Incentives and Discipline | ||
Does the company have a policy to discipline violations and incentivize compliance?
|
☐ Yes ☐ No | |
How does the company ensure consistent disciplinary actions and enforcement of its code of conduct/environmental compliance policies and procedures? | ||
How are managers held accountable for their environmental compliance responsibilities? | ||
Hotline | ||
Does your company use a confidential reporting hotline?
|
☐ Yes ☐ No | |
Apart from the hotline, what are the other mechanisms that employees have for reporting environmental regulatory concerns? Any documentation of use and follow-up? | ||
Past Internal Investigations | ||
Has your company ever conducted an internal investigation in response to allegations of noncompliance?
|
☐ Yes ☐ No | |
Does your company have a policy for how to handle responses to allegations of environmental violations? |
☐ Yes ☐ No | |
Who oversees the response? | ||
Who investigates? (internal or external, legal or compliance, or both?)
|
☐ Yes ☐ No | |
Is there a policy that requires a response to be taken as quickly as possible?
|
☐ Yes ☐ No | |
Does your company require the investigation to be concluded within a reasonable time after the activity is discovered? |
☐ Yes ☐ No | |
Are these internal investigations documented? |
☐ Yes ☐ No | |
In response to allegations or violations, has your company ever made any adjustments to the ethics and compliance program as a result?
|
☐ Yes ☐ No | |
Auditing/Monitoring | ||
Review your company’s auditing/monitoring protocol that is independent of reactive compliance or responses to the hotline. | ||
What misconduct or crimes may currently be ongoing within your organization? What is that prediction based upon? | ||
Voluntary Reporting | ||
Does your company have a policy on how to handle voluntary reporting of environmental violations? |
☐ Yes ☐ No | |
Do employees receive training on that policy? |
☐ Yes ☐ No | |
Is there documentation of past voluntary reporting? |
☐ Yes ☐ No | |
Remediation | ||
Has your company ever taken actions to correct any violations or taken any disciplinary actions that were revealed by the compliance program?
|
☐ Yes ☐ No | |
What processes are in place to ensure that appropriate remedial measures are taken in response to identified weaknesses? | ||
After any significant “incidents” or violations, does management routinely conduct or authorize a root cause analysis of the underlying violations/misconduct and then make necessary improvements?
|
☐ Yes ☐ No | |
Past Environmental Program Assessments | ||
Has your company ever conducted compliance program assessments to determine the effectiveness of the program and/or possible areas of exposure or highest risk?
|
☐ Yes ☐ No | |
Risk Assessment | ||
Does your company regularly conduct environmental compliance risk assessments?
|
☐ Yes ☐ No | |
What are the top environmental compliance risks? | ||
What measures are being taken by the company to mitigate/reduce these risks? Is there a written plan of action to mitigate or reduce these risks? | ||
If your company does not believe it faces any significant regulatory enforcement or compliance risks, what is the basis for that belief? | ||
Enforcement-Readiness (Policies and Training) | ||
Does your ethics and compliance program have specific procedures and training to address:
|
☐ Yes ☐ No ☐ Yes ☐ No ☐ Yes ☐ No ☐ Yes ☐ No ☐ Yes ☐ No ☐ Yes ☐ No | |
Miscellaneous | ||
What would your company point to as evidence to demonstrate your company’s positive culture, as well as the right tone at the top?
| ||
What feature or accomplishment within the ethics and compliance program is your company most proud of, and why?
| ||
Are you aware of whether your industry has established any such best practices?
|
☐ Yes ☐ No | |
What would your current and former employees claim is your company’s level of commitment toward regulatory compliance or sound business ethics?
| ||
Historically, what have been your company’s biggest compliance challenges?
| ||
Currently, what are your company’s biggest compliance challenges?
| ||
How can you make your ethics and compliance program better or more effective? |
APPENDIX 5-J: Sample Self-Assessment Questionnaire for Environmental Compliance Programs
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