The Ethics Resource Center [1] in Washington DC has released an interesting document for anyone active in the Ethics & Compliance Officer field - see the quotes below which give a taste of the subject of the document:

Note that they have removed the link to the paper. It may be elsewhere... [quote=The Ethics Resource Center (See: http://www.ethics.org/CECO/ [2])]"This paper responds to a problem expressed by many professionals tasked with leading the ethics and compliance efforts in their organizations: most CECOs do not believe they have been given sufficient authority and resources to accomplish their missions. Even further, they struggle to raise the discussion with executives and directors."[/quote]

And from the Foreword:

The need for this paper was perhaps best evidenced by a headline appearing on Forbes.com on October 23, 2006, questioning “Chief Ethics Officers: Who Needs Them?”1 The article was a response to statistics that had been reported just a few days earlier by Business Week that during the first three quarters of 2006, a CEO was fired every thirteen days as the result of scandal.2 “Chief ethics and compliance officers have become trendy in recent years,” the Forbes article went on to say, “but some experts fear they act mainly as window dressing.” You can download the full document here: http://www.ethics.org/CECO/ [2] (Or click on the document image to the right...) 1 Clark, Hannah. (2006, October 23). Chief Ethics Officers: Who Needs Them? http://www.forbes.com/corporategovernance/2006/10/23/leadership-ethics-hp-lead-govern-cx_hc_1023ethics.html [3] 2 LaVelle, Louis. (2006, October 12). CEOs Feel the Heat http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/oct2006/db20061012_398172.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily [4]