Rob Chester, former chief compliance officer for Wal-Mart's China operations, was promoted last week to oversee compliance at the retail giant's U.S. stores. Walmart says the move was long-planned, although in a stroke of bad timing the move happened the same week Walmart had to recall contaminated meat in China.

Paul Gallemore, currently chief compliance officer for Walmart's India operations, will replace Chester in China.

Walmart acknowledged last week that Chinese regulators have detained certain officials of Dezhou Fujude Food Co., a Chinese supplier of Walmart, for providing Walmart China and other distributors with donkey meat containing fox DNA. In addition to the actions taken by Chinese regulators, Walmart stated that it's weighing whether to take legal action against the parties involved.

In a published statement, Walmart said it “immediately withdrew and sealed all products” from Dezhou Fujude Food Company Limited once it learned of the allegations. “In addition, Walmart is actively supporting the industrial, commercial and food safety authorities in their investigation.”

Walmart further said it will begin adding DNA tests to the sample tests that it's currently conducting on its meat products.

Kevin Gardner, senior director for Walmart's international corporate affairs, tells Compliance Week that the timing of Chester's move to the United States is mere coincidence. Chester's promotion had been months in the making, unrelated to any incident, he says.

Jay Jorgensen, senior vice president and global chief compliance officer for Wal-Mart Stores, further stressed the important role Chester played in establishing Walmart China's compliance team over the past two years.  “In 2013 we accomplished 2.7 million hours of compliance training, an average of 20 hours per associate, launched buyer compliance training and established a number of key compliance training programs,” Jorgensen says.

“Under Rob's leadership, we dramatically improved internal audits of our stores against international standards,” Jorgensen adds. “It's these successes in China that made us eager to promote Rob to an expanded role in the U.S where he will continue to strengthen and contribute to our global compliance program.”

Also under Chester's leadership, Walmart China set up a food safety team of over 60 compliance experts in retail industry and a compliance self-check team of three to four associates in each store to manage food safety, Gardner adds. 

Read more about China's crackdown on food safety violations in next week's edition of Compliance Week.