Money laundering and terrorism financing are two forms of financial crime in which an organisation may find itself involuntarily involved.  Authorities put vulnerable organisations in continuously increasing scrutiny in an effort to prevent or reduce money laundering occurrences.  Affected organisations need to have clear and documented policies and procedures in order to assist their staff in performing their work and to provide assurance to the authorities and their own clients that business is carried out in a transparent, assessed and controlled manner.

Further to own personal and corporate responsibilities towards our planet and the environment, environmental aspects more often than not coincide with business aspects.  Energy efficiency, careful selection of materials, control in usage, segregation and recycling of waste, monitoring and reduction of air and water emissions are environmental aspects that have financial as well as reputational implications to organisations.  Their identification, assessment and control can improve the cash flow, the reputation and the pride of the organisation’s employees

In the light of the - much expected - governmental plan for the privatization of governmental health centres and hospitals and the complete restructuring of the provision of health services in Cyprus, private and public health institutions will soon be required to undergo an approval process in order to continue providing their services.  Good preparation will assist health institutions in obtaining the necessary approvals and in improving their reputation and market share.

It is too often that organisations lack the most basic resource in their operation: a Procedures Manual putting together the operational procedures of how the top management and the line management have agreed to work.  Operations manuals are sometimes a wish list from management or a fiction story inapplicable in reality, and are, therefore, completely useless to staff.  Procedures manuals should meet certain requirements in order to be useful.  They should: abide by law (where applicable), be aligned with the organisational policy, be an analysis of corporate core and support processes, be agreed between executive and line management, be feasible through testing, produce results that can be monitored and be regularly revised to ensure relevance and improvement.