Visión Tridimensional Compliance
When elections impact on compliance in Latin
America
Politics can have a serious effect in developing business risking their corporate reputation and long
term sustainability
When doing business in Latin
America – particularly in relation
to large projects – investors and
business leaders are always aware
of imminent changes in the political
climate. The opportunities for
companies are clear, but come
election time and with a new
government in place, whether at
a local, regional or national level,
there is a potential for challenges
to existing projects. The session
organised by The Latin American
Lawyer and hosted by Hunton &
Williams, brought together a group
of leading Miami-based general
counsel and compliance officers
from companies with business
interest in the Latin American
region to address the challenge of
reducing risk in times of change.
There might be a period where
companies are scrutinised, or
even suspected of misconduct
when winning contracts linked to
projects, services and/or suppliers
related to previous administrations.
What can companies do to
guarantee those contracts and
projects? The debate was led by
Alejandro Nino at Royal & Sun
Alliance Insurance, Fernando
Gonzalez at Basham, Ringe &
Correa that brought the experience
from the Mexican perspective, John
J Delionado at Hunton & Williams,
Jose Alfredo Arce at Citigroup
www.iberianlawyer.com/compliance
and Juan C. Enjamio at Hunton &
Williams that led the session and
final conclusions.
When talking about public
procurement in Latin America,
some companies are still crossing
the red-line to close the deal, but
the trend is to develop procedures
to avoid malpractice and to protect
the long term sustainability of
the company. It is not only a
question of closing the deal but
understanding who is on the other
side of the deal and how do they
understand compliance. A good
due diligent process is key to
avoid surprises.
The culture of compliance needs
to be in every part of the business. It
is not a question of the compliance
team, but something that everyone
needs to integrate in their everyday
duties. When there is a joint venture
or a process of buying another
company, the procedures need to be
transparent and the company with
stronger compliance culture needs
to transmit their values and establish
where are the red lines clearly at
all levels of the company. At an
initial stage, there might be needed
external teams to investigate deeper
and make sure that best practice is
used from the top to the bottom of
the company. Auditing processes or
inves