ABSTRACT
The corporate sector has learnt some expensive lessons in recent decades on the costs of inadequate auditing systems to ensure compliance with the law. In more mundane ways, large corporations are confronted every year with instances of employees breaking the law on behalf of the corporation in their enthusiasm to achieve the goals they have been set by the organisation. In short, corporations which have a climate of tolerance towards illegal means of corporate goal attainment in a variety of ways tend themselves to become victims of corporate crime. The upshot of this realisation has been that many companies are now responding constructively with preventive law programmes which draw on the experience of managerial auditing. In contrast, companies with little will to comply sometimes draw lines of accountability with a view to creating a picture of diffused responsibility so that no one can be called to account should a court enquire into the affairs of the company.
