Category Archives: Regulatory Risk

Для тех, кто интересуется безопасным доступом к онлайн-играм, наш партнер предлагает зеркало Вавады, которое позволяет обходить любые блокировки и сохранять доступ ко всем функциям казино.

RIMS Risk Maturity Model: Performance Management

Posted on by

In the study measuring effects of enterprise risk management (ERM) maturity—as  defined by the RIMS Risk Maturity Model (RMM) assessment—no attribute had a more meaningful impact on bottom line corporate value than Performance Management. The correlation is not an accident. While many organizations say they have an effective handle on risk, their ability to execute the policies and procedures they’ve put into place are severely lacking.

The sixth RMM attribute of ERM Maturity, Performance Management, measures the ability for an organization to execute vision and strategy through the effective use of a balanced scorecard.

Balanced Scorecard

The root of the balanced scorecard concept lies in the desire to turn complex but passive strategic plans into marching orders and commitment that can be executed on a daily basis. The methods of accomplishing this result are familiar to risk managers: developing standardized criteria, prioritizing activities, and monitoring results.

buy norvasc online desiredsmiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/norvasc.html no prescription pharmacy

To execute the Balanced Scorecard concept, corporations typically have a whole host of measures for monitoring control activity effectiveness, but what is consistently lacking is a means to measure the effectiveness of how the control activity is addressing performance goals. Risk bridges this gap.

The Role of Risk

Every business faces the challenge of cutting costs and making changes. After all, all activities are critically important to someone. So how do you assure that the greater good of the organization gets prioritized?

Linking risk to performance for a risk adjusted decision addresses this challenge.

Examples of performance management in the absence of a risk-based Balanced Scorecard are widespread. BP knew back in 2002 that a lack of pipeline maintenance could result in “catastrophe,” but management instead prioritized the short term operational budget in the interests of cutting maintenance costs. More recently, the U.S. government has dealt with criminal investigations into the Veterans Health Administration’s inability to deliver care to U.S. veterans, due to “significant and chronic system failures.” In the case of the VA scandal, monitoring metrics were improperly controlled and focused on the wrong measures of success.

buy propecia online desiredsmiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/propecia.html no prescription pharmacy

The result was falsified reports created in the interest of demonstrating compliance with policy, rather than execution of strategy.

A Seat at the Table

Involving risk in strategic decision making is the essence of performance management. In every failure we’ve documented, the risks were known, but rarely given a seat at the table. Organizations with mature enterprise risk management (ERM) programs have empowered their risk managers to take action and use ERM tools to support and provide transparency to the organization’s strategic plan.

To learn how Enterprise Risk Management adds transparency and discipline to an organizations strategic planning and performance management process, watch our webinar, “What is Strategic ERM.”

EEOC Oversight: Congress Considers Accountability Proposal

Posted on by

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has encountered a series of set-backs over the last several years in terms of big losses and fee sanction awards. Our past blog posts have reported on these court rulings and defeats (here, here, here, and here.) As a result, criticism has mounted, stakeholders have complained, and now some members of Congress want to do something about it.

Most recently, on June 10, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, Subcommittee on Workforce Protections held a hearing titled “The Regulatory and Enforcement Priorities of the EEOC: Examining the Concerns of Stakeholders.” Representatives of various stake-holders testified, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Referencing complaints raised at EEOC meetings in 2012 and 2013, the Chamber pointed to a rare consensus between plaintiff and defense bars—that EEOC investigations “[are] too long, inconsistent and of questionable quality.” The Chamber noted that the EEOC has so far failed to address those complaints by providing investigators with timeliness standards or a definition of a “quality, limited investigation.” In addition, the Chamber highlighted the agency’s propensity for litigation at the expense of sound investigation and good-faith conciliation. As a key example, the Chamber cited the EEOC’s “stonewalling” in EEOC v. CRST Van Expedited, Inc., where EEOC’s failure to exhaust administrative remedies and to properly investigate before resorting to litigation led to $4.7 million in sanctions. The Chamber’s testimony can be downloaded here. Concurrent with the hearing, the Chamber released a white paper titled “Review of Enforcement and Litigation Strategy during the Obama Administration—A Misuse of Authority.”

Against this backdrop, on June 25, Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) a member of the House Committee on Education & the Workforce, introduced the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Transparency and Accountability Act (H.R. 4959). A Fact Sheet on the proposed bill is here.

Summary of H.R. 4959

The proposed legislation would require the EEOC to post on its website and in its annual report an array of information to promote transparency.

In a press release announcing the bill, Congressman Hudson said: “The EEOC is tasked with a noble mission to protect American workers and job-seekers from discrimination in the workplace and hiring practices. Recently, however, the EEOC overstepped its bounds by litigating numerous cases found to be frivolous, groundless, and baseless, that have caused undue burdens on numerous businesses and industries. It is critical that Congress provides meaningful oversight to certify that the EEOC stays focused on carrying out its core mission. This legislation will increase transparency and accountability at the EEOC to help ensure that the agency fulfills its duty and adequately balances the interests of both employers and workers.”

Among other things, the proposed legislation would require the EEOC to post on its website and in its annual report an array of information to promote transparency, including any case in which EEOC was required to pay fees or costs, or where a sanction was imposed against it by a court; the total number of charges filed by an EEOC member or as a result of a directed investigation; and each systemic discrimination lawsuit brought by the EEOC.

It also would require the EEOC to conduct conciliation endeavors in good faith and such endeavors would be subject to judicial review.

Further, the bill would require the EEOC’s Inspector General (IG) to notify Congress within 14 days when a court has ordered sanctions against EEOC. The IG must also conduct a thorough investigation of why the agency brought the case, and submit a report to Congress within 90 days of the court’s decision explaining why sanctions were imposed. In addition, the bill would require the EEOC to submit a report to Congress within 60 days of the court’s decision detailing steps EEOC is taking to reduce instances in which it is subject to court-ordered sanctions; further, the EEOC would have to post this report to its website within 30 days of submitting to Congress.

Implications for Employers

The proposed bill is one measure of the degree of frustration that stakeholders have with the job the EEOC is doing. While no one questions the importance of the Commission’s mission to root out and eradicate employment discrimination, many question the manner in which the EEOC has wielded its power. Employers should stay tuned, as future chapters in this debate are sure to be written in the coming months.

This blog previously appeared on the Seyfarth Shaw website.

Yeager Airport Added to W.Va. Chemical Spill Lawsuit

Posted on by

A consolidated class-action complaint contends that poor management of a construction project extending runways at Yeager Airport created conditions causing runoff, contributing to the January chemical leak that left hundreds of thousands of West Virginians without water.

The West Virginia Gazette reported that in the complaint, filed June 20 in federal court, plaintiffs allege the airport’s runway extension project, which began in 2004, created storm water runoff that disturbed the Freedom Industries tank farm. This eventually led to the failure of the tank that leaked 4-methylcyclohexane methanol (MCHM) and PPH (polyglycol ethers), chemicals, mostly used to clean coal.

The chemical leak began on Jan. 9, when authorities discovered that 7,500 gallons of chemicals had leaked from an aging storage tank into the nearby Elk River.

buy zestril online iddocs.net/images/photoalbum/gif/zestril.html no prescription pharmacy

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin issued a State of Emergency for Boone, Cabell, Clay, Jackson, Kanawha, Lincoln, Logan, Putnam and Roane counties. Up to 300,000 residents were affected and hundreds were sickened. Dozens of lawsuits have been filed since the coal-cleaning chemical contaminated the region’s water supply.

The complaint, filed by residents and businesses affected by the spill, states that, “erosion of the tank’s foundation and the increased water on the tank site and the associated process of repeated wetting and drying of the tank bottom, which resulted from the Airport’s runway extension project and the lack of associated or adequate storm water controls, significantly caused or contributed to the MCHM tank’s failure in January 2014.”

The new complaint also names Triad Engineering as a defendant. Triad worked for the airport on the extension project, which had numerous problems from the start. The complaint states that the airport and Triad “did not design or plan for any permanent storm water detention or retention structures following completion of the runway extension project.

buy rotacaps online iddocs.net/images/photoalbum/gif/rotacaps.html no prescription pharmacy

”

According to the lawsuit, storm water controls that were installed were inadequate to control the excess storm water caused from construction.

RIMS Risk Maturity Model: ERM Approach and Process Management

Posted on by

Last week, we introduced the latest findings from studies of the RIMS Risk Maturity Model. In an effort to explain the model and results of the study more fully, it’s beneficial to break the RMM into each of its attributes. Here we’ll examine the first two attributes of an effective ERM program, ERM Based Approach and ERM Process Management.

ERM Based Approach

The emphasis of this attribute is to move organizations from an old, obsolete style of governance to a more holistic, integrated approach. Old-style governance is focused on regulatory compliance and silo specific risk management. The problem with this approach is it leaves the organization exposed to risk that isn’t governed by regulatory mandates, as well as cross functional risk that may be systemic to the company.

We see examples of failures in this approach all the time. West Virginia’s water contamination crisis, for example, was caused by a series of risks with inadequate controls—the chemical tank was not adequately surveyed, the employees were not directed to immediately report the leak, even the water filtration organization wrongly estimated that it could filter the chemicals out. None of these entities were at fault from a regulatory perspective, but they were still on the hook for millions in remediation (the chemical plant filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January).

buy rybelsus online abucm.org/assets/jpg/rybelsus.html no prescription pharmacy

An ERM approach moves organizations past regulatory concerns, which are only a subset of the overall risk universe. This requires a number of activities that the Risk Maturity Model identifies as drivers of ERM Maturity—tone from the top, assimilation into front line activities, risk ownership—which when combined result in a more risk-aware enterprise.

RIMS Risk Maturity Model: ERM Process Management

With a new governance mindset in place, organizations can move to applying a risk-based process framework of Identify, Assess, Evaluate, Mitigate and Monitor within each business process.

The RMM assesses the degree to which these activities are pervasive inside business processes. Many executives misinterpret these processes as unique to ERM, when in fact the steps are iterative, constantly reoccurring within organizations but without any defined process or standardizations.

buy amaryl online abucm.org/assets/jpg/amaryl.html no prescription pharmacy

The key to ERM process management is to create a common language and structure so areas can better transfer knowledge to each other where beneficial.  This is done by integrating these framework steps into the business in a way that provides accountability, repeatability, and adequate reporting. A great example is the Vendor Management Governance function. Vendor management is frequently tasked with identifying critical vendors, assessing their risk (such as “due diligence”) and then managing through mitigation (contracts, insurance certificates) and monitoring (shipping times, order completion).

The problem is that vendor management, like other functions, is operating independently with too little information exchanged between vendor management and other governance functions.

Why is this important?

Strategic imperatives are by nature cross-functional, but are rarely linked to processes and activities on the front line. When not linked, risks to corporate objectives are either not addressed or treated differently by the business processes. This alignment is a critical driver of ERM maturity. Organizations that can effectively communicate goals—not just at the corporate level, but down to the front lines—are better equipped to achieve results and elevate concerns.

buy lasix online abucm.org/assets/jpg/lasix.html no prescription pharmacy

Interested in seeing how this approach differs from traditional governance? Watch our short video on Strategic Risk Management.