In the meantime, the controversy surrounding Wal-Mart could have a ripple effect on other companies' governance practices by prompting boards to become increasingly concerned over hits to the reputations of the companies they oversee. That translates into possibly tougher questioning of CFOs. "It's audit-committee meeting season for most public companies, and I'd be surprised if there is an audit committee out there not questioning companies on their processes and compliance around the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act," says Dennis Whalen, executive director of KPMG's Audit Committee Institute. (Whalen refused to comment on the Wal-Mart case specifically.)
Even before the Wal-Mart issue came to light, directors have become increasingly concerned over compliance with the FCPA, a 34-year-old law that prohibits U.S. companies from bribing government officials to win business. The reasons for their worry are that the enforcement of the act has risen in recent years and more companies are becoming global in scale.
