Whether you are an executive who recently took over an existing China operation, or you wish to ensure continued compliance with all relevant laws and regulations for risk management purposes, we can help you design a process to conduct periodic “legal/compliance health checks” in order to identify potential risks before they manifest as actual issues and liabilities.
Legal Compliance Audits
We assist companies to develop and implement processes and tools which provide a systematic and institutional record of key legal, operational, regulatory and corporate governance records. These can be developed for China and then for other regions as needed. The goal is to utilize company staff with Pamir guidance to reduce costs so that an accurate and honest understanding of the current business situation is developed collectively. Based on this collective insight, a detailed action plan can be developed and tasks can be prioritized.
To facilitate this process, we rely on our electronic data room platform, which can be used for completion of the legal complience audits, important records storage/management, and centralized management information and coordination. This can also be a platform for regional and worldwide headquarters to access critical management and operational information. This can also be migrated to a central company server when built. It can also be a tool to coordinate efforts in multiple jurisdictions
A corporate/legal audit can be undertaken at varying degrees of intensity, depending on the company’s needs. At a minimum, the audit examines day-to-day operations of the company and includes a review of corporate registrations, required permits and licenses for existing business operations, labor law compliance, and compliance with terms of existing contracts with suppliers as well as customers.
A corporate/legal audit will include a review of relevant documentation as well as interviews of key personnel, with the goal of reviewing whether the paperwork matches actual day-to-day practices. At the conclusion of the audit, the company will be provided with a report of the results of the audit as well as recommendations for improvements.
We often also recommend taking the time to strengthen and update its existing Standard Operation Procedures (SOP) regularly in order to ensure:
- compliance with applicable laws and regulations,
- transparency and adherence by all employees to SOPs,
- checks and balances, and
- adoption of best practices.
We recommend that all existing SOPs are reviewed, revised, improved and updated periodically. Failure to do this places the company operations and business at risk. A rational tailored set of SOPs which involves company personnel at all levels is a critical ingredient to the responsible management of an enterprise in China.
Here is a list of some of the key SOPs for companies operating in China. There may be other SOPs that are needed or are already in existence at the Company. We can discuss these with you after you have a chance to review these items.