Some Olympic Ticket Sale Woes May Be Result of Restrictive Corporate Gift and Entertainment Policies

MINNEAPOLIS, July 26, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Reported difficulties in selling high-end Olympics tickets may be due to tighter than anticipated corporate entertainment and gift policies. According to a survey released today and jointly fielded by the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE) and the Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA), most organizations are fairly restrictive of the gifts employees can give and receive and how they can entertain. Despite the passage of Dodd-Frank, increased Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement, and the commercial bribery provisions of the UK Bribery Act, the results are relatively unchanged since 2009 when the SCCE and HCCA first conducted this survey.

"Business decisions should be made based on what is best for the company and not on personal gain. Personal gifts interfere with this objective.  Banning gifts is a good business practice," said Roy Snell, Chief Executive Officer, SCCE and HCCA.

Giving and Receiving Gifts

More companies report policies that ban giving gifts than receiving them. Survey results reveal 22 percent of companies ban receiving gifts while 28 percent ban giving gifts. In addition, 37 percent of nonprofit and 38 percent of health care organizations ban the giving of gifts. Restrictions were looser for non-health care companies and publically traded companies.

When it comes to policies governing receiving gifts, 22 percent of those surveyed noted their companies do not allow gifts to be received at all, while 26 percent have policies that restrict gifts to under $50, and 20 percent restrict gifts to not more than $100.  

Being Entertained and Entertaining

Generally, the survey revealed that restrictions on being entertained were similar to the policies governing receiving gifts. The survey found that 23 percent of respondents reported they were not allowed to be entertained. As it is with gift policies, the number was greater among nonprofits and health care organizations, both at 30 percent. Those allowed to accept entertainment were most likely to report policies calling for "modest" entertainment rather than a specific dollar amount.

Overall, 22 percent reported a ban on entertaining customers, but for privately held companies and publicly traded companies the numbers were much lower at 16 percent, and 10 percent respectively. Among those responding to the survey from publicly traded companies, 40 percent indicated policies that required modest entertainment; this is up from 25 percent in 2009.

Not surprisingly, 68 percent of employers do not permit entertaining clients or the entertainment of employees at strip clubs and other adult venues. However, 1 percent permits this form of entertainment.

For the complete survey report, click on

SCCE link: http://www.corporatecompliance.org/Resources/ResourceOverview/Surveys.aspx

HCCA link: http://www.hcca-info.org/Resources/ResourceOverview/Surveys.aspx

About HCCA, SCCE

Minneapolis, Minn.-based HCCA and SCCE are non-profit professional membership organizations comprised of compliance and ethics professionals. These two organizations exist to champion ethical practices and compliance standards, and to provide educational and training resources for ethics and compliance professionals and others who share these principles. Visit HCCA on the Web at www.hcca-info.org and visit SCCE at www.corporatecompliance.org

SOURCE Health Care Compliance Association; Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics