Nairobi, April 15 -- Nearly six years ago I wrote a column here about the necessary evil of compliance, the theme of a Leaders Circle I had just co-hosted. In it, I quoted former Deputy US Attorney-General Paul McNulty, who rightly pointed out that "If you think compliance is expensive, try non-compliance". And in our conversation, we agreed that one must be neither too trusting nor insufficiently so.

These thoughts were on my mind while attending the first day of the recent Nielsonsmith conference on "Compliance, Anti-Corruption and Ethics in Africa" where I was representing the Blue Company, one of the sponsors. During the conference, I saw quite how prominent this compliance issue has become, with more and more organisations appointin...