DOJ Publishes New Evaluation Questionnaire on Compliance Programs

(I) Overview

United States Department of Justice ("DOJ") published on its website a new guidance paper called "Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs" ("Evaluation") in February 2017. The Evaluation provides insight into how the DOJ evaluates compliance programs by setting forth the questions DOJ frequently uses when deciding on fine mitigation or entering into a plea agreements.

While documents such as the United States Attorney's Manual, United States Sentencing Guidelines and A Resource Guide to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA Guide") define "what" elements a compliance program is expected to have, the Evaluation provides guidance on "how". The document does not put forward any new elements for compliance programs, but provides compliance professionals with a useful tool that they can use while assessing the integrity of their compliance programs. In fact, many questions listed in the Evaluation would be hard to answer vis-a-vis a paper