8.2.1 Establishing a Compliance Program

According to the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) the design and implementation of a post issuance compliance program “should consider the issuer’s size, organizational structure, frequency of bond issuance, and budget/staffing resources.”124 The GFOA recommends that issuers identify a “chief compliance officer” by job title rather than name to assure continuity. The position will have the overall responsibility to implement and coordinate the compliance program.125 The GFOA also specifies that large agencies may assign staff to specific responsibilities under the authority of the chief compliance officer. To ensure effective oversight, a compliance officer should be primarily responsible for verifying that post issuance activities are performed by the various programs and personnel in accordance with applicable policies and procedures and other control documents.

To ensure effective oversight, the GFOA recommends that a compliance program achieve the following:

Identify the individual or individuals responsible for coordinating activities.
Provide for due diligence review at regular intervals.
Facilitate training for responsible individuals.
Describe retention of adequate records to substantiate compliance.
Accommodate review that identifies areas most susceptible to noncompliance.
Include procedures to correct identified noncompliance in a timely manner.

The Task Force on Bond Accountability’s Final Report recommends that agencies have administrative practices to ensure that job descriptions and duty statements define responsibilities for compliance staff and integrate an agency’s business operations with its debt management and internal control procedures for bond funds.126 This may include segregating duties and lines of authority and including reporting and communication with a governing body, addressed in the agency’s internal control system.