The Rutgers School of Law–Camden has established a center to aid government organizations in adopting compliance and ethics programs to improve accountability and transparency.

The newly formed Rutgers Center for Government Compliance and Ethics will serve to advance the application of effective ethics and compliance program principles in government agencies through research, education, and networking. 

“The purpose is to create cultures of integrity at all levels of government, which drive mission fulfillment and inspire public trust,” said Rayman Solomon, dean of the Rutgers School of Law–Camden and faculty sponsor of the center. “Enabling people to recognize and respect legal and ethical boundaries is partly about developing awareness and skills, but also involves creating the right infrastructure and processes.”

Solomon argues that existing controls and resources are insufficient to assure that ethical behavior and compliance with the law are integrated into the mission of government agencies. Effective compliance and ethics programs can improve overall ethical behavior by detecting and preventing problems as part of an ongoing process. Solomon adds that Rutgers plans to start a research project to examine which governmental agencies have compliance programs.

The new Rutgers center grew out of the establishment of the Jay A. Sigler Fund for Corporate Compliance, which was established in 2008 by Rutgers–Camden alumnus Joe Murphy to help business, governmental, and non-profit organizations better understand the complexities of compliance and ethics. To advance the Center's mission, Murphy formed an advisory board comprised of seven experts on compliance and ethics. The board prepared a White Paper describing why government agencies should be proactive in ethics and compliance.