My thanks to Richard Morris for sharing a short article published by the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD), Steps to take when investigating a senior leader.
It is written by David Steirn, the director of Enterprise Investigations Pty Ltd. (a Sydney law firm that specializes in investigations) and a former barrister.
Both he and I have led or performed multiple investigations into allegations or suspected violations of the company’s code of conduct (including violations of law). Several of mine included senior executives.
But it looks, from his writing, as if we have some different ideas based on those experiences.
Have a quick read of his piece, and then I will share my thoughts. I am not going to talk about situations where there is a potential ‘Human Resources’ (HR) type of violation (such as discrimination in employment or creating a hostile environment), as I have not (thankfully) had to investigate any of them. I passed them on to the HR executive.
His article has guidance for members of the board. That is understandable, because the article is being published by the AICD.
But while board members may very occasionally receive an allegation directly, that is most unusual. It happens, and I have seen it, but almost all fraud-related complaints are received via a hotline, by the legal…
