[hliyan]

This has got me wondering: what if all publicly listed companies are required to have an ethics officer whose job is to point out ethical concerns regarding management decisions (whereas management is usually only concerned about legal compliance, no more, no less)? The recommendations of the ethics officer are non-binding -- i.e. management is free to ignore them, but they do so at their peril: if an issue arises and management is found to have ignored the recommendations, then they are accountable. If the ethics officer fails to raise the concern, then they are accountable. What form that accountability takes, is something I haven't thought about.