Ethics & Compliance Program
Compliance Cycle
What is an ethics & compliance program?
A compliance program seeks to PREVENT misconduct by establishing clear expectations and standards of conduct, ensuring that faculty and staff are aware of applicable laws and rules, and maintaining internal controls.
A compliance program must also have ways to DETECT problems that occur, including whistleblower hotlines and other reporting mechanisms as well as audits and monitoring systems.
A compliance program REMEDIES violations, system failures, internal control weaknesses, including through disciplinary action and policy improvements.
The Board of Regents of the University of California established the systemwide ethics and compliance program in 2006, and reaffirmed it in 2017. The ethics and compliance program is designed to prevent illegal and unethical activity and to detect and effectively respond to any misconduct or violations that occur. The program involves:
- development of policies, procedures and other systems and internal controls
- educating the community about compliance matters and incentivizing ethical behavior, including through training
- enforcing policies and codes through appropriate discipline and corrective action.
Under the UC system, each campus and medical center has a chief compliance officer who coordinates ethics and compliance activities and acts as a liaison to the system Senior Vice President and Chief Compliance and Audit Officer.
