Eight out of ten managers responsible for Governance Risk & Compliance (GRC) said they thought there were too many warnings about compliance and that they often led to discontent and complacency within their organisations.
Alarmingly, nearly two-thirds of those surveyed by GRC technology company Achiever Business Solutions (ABS) said they thought no one would check on compliance issues – an attitude that was even adopted at an operational level.
ABS said such negative attitudes were “significantly more common” in organisations without a company-wide GRC policy or a centralised risk management function. In all, 78 per cent of respondents felt that negative attitudes to compliance issues and risk could rebound significantly on their organisations later.
A total of 86 per cent said the most effective solution lay in deploying enterprise-wide GRC systems run from a central GRC department. This, they believe, would remove the burden of compliance and risk avoidance from operational management.
ABS’s managing director, Robert Dent, said, “The growing emphasis on compliance and risk issues, in major corporates, has in many cases outpaced the ability of some companies to create an effective and unified enterprise-wide approach and infrastructure for GRC management.
“In some cases, this leaves the GRC burden in the hands of operational management who have their own roles to play.
“It is essential therefore, to maintain a focused approach to GRC, before bad attitudes become entrenched and that means more investment in professional enterprise-wide systems.
“This will place the responsibility for GRC with those who are best trained and equipped to deal with it and by the same token, take it away from those who see it as a burden, imposition or not part of their role.”
