????沃爾瑪董事會正在成為公眾關注的焦點，而且在相當一段時間內都將如此。

????2005年前后，沃爾瑪管理層終止了對其墨西哥公司存在的賄賂行為的內部調查。目前，該公司正因此遭受調查，除了可能的法律后果之外，沃爾瑪還面臨聲譽掃地和潛在的管理人事變動的危機。由于公司高管也被懷疑牽涉其中，沃爾瑪董事會需要查出當時到底發生了什么，以及當時都有哪些人知情并且采取了什么措施。

????斯坦福大學商學院企業監管研究項目主任戴維?拉克表示，“這種形勢對董事會來說真的很糟糕。董事會具有進行風險管理的職責，并且要關注所有這種問題。但問題是，作為董事會成員，你無法親自開展內部審計。你不得不依賴管理者們為你提供信息。”

????《紐約時報》上周末報道了沃爾瑪的賄賂案及當時該公司的調查情況，并稱現任首席執行官邁克爾?杜克及其前任李?斯考特都是知情者，斯考特當時就已擔任首席執行官，而杜克當時則主管國際業務。沃爾瑪昨天發表聲明表示，公司的審計委員會在半年前曾針對這些問題進行了內部調查。

????除了斯考特和杜克兩人都是沃爾瑪董事會成員這一事實以外，該報道并未提及其他公司董事是否知曉此事。這使得審計委員會（由獨立董事組成）在當前調查中所起的主導作用變得很關鍵。沃爾瑪公司的一位發言人拒絕發表評論。

????在這份聲明中，沃爾瑪表示公司新設了一個全球反腐敗合規官職位，以加強全球所有市場的《反海外腐敗法案》（FCPA）合規工作。擔任這一職位的官員負責監督沃爾瑪駐海外市場的五位FCPA合規主管。

????彭尼公司（J.C. Penney）前任首席執行官艾倫?科斯特魯姆曾經在2007年至2010年之間擔任沃爾瑪董事會成員。他表示記不起擔任董事期間曾討論過FCPA合規風險問題。他說，“公司董事會議程上有很多緊急事項。有太多的事情需要討論，所以我們不會去討論那些以前從未發生過的事情。”他補充說，“現在此事已提上日程，沃爾瑪會竭盡全力修正此問題。”

????沃爾瑪董事會包括不少頂級商界精英，比如可口可樂公司（Coca-Cola）前任首席執行官道格拉斯?達福特、百事可樂公司（PepsiCo）前任首席執行官史蒂芬?瑞尼蒙德以及風險投資機構Accel Partners的經理合伙人吉姆?布雷耶。谷歌公司（Google）負責本土和地圖業務的副總裁瑪麗莎?麥爾將作為董事會候選成員于6月1日參加最近一次的董事會成員增補選舉。

????董事會的若干其他成員來自高盛公司（Goldman Sachs）、新聞集團（News Corporation）、和綠衫咖啡烘焙公司（Green Mountain Coffee Roasters）。因為這幾家公司最近也被審查，理論上來說，他們應該能讓沃爾瑪更好地認識到如何才能順利度過這一危機。

????Wal-Mart's board is about to step into the spotlight -- and don't expect the glare to subside any time soon.

????Along with possible legal consequences, the retailer faces reputational risks and potential managerial disruption over allegations that executives shut down an internal bribery investigation into its Mexico operations in the middle of last decade. Facing claims that senior leaders were involved, Wal-Mart's (WMT) board will need to determine what happened, and who knew what and when.

????"This is one of these nightmare situations for the board," said David Larcker, director of the corporate governance research program at Stanford's business school. "You have a responsibility to do risk management and pay attention to all these kinds of issues, but the problem is that, as a board member, you're not out there doing the internal auditing. You have to rely on information provided by managers."

????Wal-Mart said in a statement yesterday that its audit committee launched an internal inquiry six months ago into the bribery and investigation issues reported by the New York Times over the weekend -- issues that the Times alleges current CEO Mike Duke and former CEO Lee Scott were aware of. Scott was CEO at the time, and Duke was head of international.

????Beyond the fact that Scott and Duke both sit on Wal-Mart's board, the story did not report that any of the company's directors were aware of the situation. This makes it critical that the company's audit committee, comprised of independent directors, take the lead on the current inquiry. A spokesperson for Wal-Mart declined to offer comment for this story.

????In its statement, Wal-Mart said it had strengthened its global Foreign Corrupt Practices Act bribery law compliance processes, creating a new global FCPA compliance officer role that will oversee five compliance directors based in global markets.

????Allen Questrom, former CEO of J.C. Penney (JCP) who served on the Wal-Mart board from 2007 to 2010, said he doesn't recall discussing FCPA risk during his time as a director. "People have on the agenda things that are immediate," he said. "There are so many things you have to discuss that you don't discuss things that have never happened to you before." He added, "Now that it's on the table, they'll bend over to correct it."

????Wal-Mart's board includes a collection of A-listers, such as former Coca-Cola (KO) CEO Douglas Daft, former CEO of PepsiCo (PEP) Steven Reinemund, and Accel Partners manager partner Jim Breyer. Marissa Mayer, Google's (GOOG) vice president of local and maps, will stand for election as the latest addition to the board on June 1.

????The board members' other directorships include a handful of companies that have recently come under scrutiny -- Goldman Sachs (GS), News Corporation (NWS), Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) -- which, ideally, should give the group a decent sense of how they should navigate the turbulence that's ahead.