FICCI t UN Office for Drugs and Crime outlines agenda - PDF document

FICCI - GIZ launch ‘Alliance for Integrity: Chiselling the Way Forward’ UN Office for Drugs and Crime outlines agenda for corporate integrity & probity in public procurement to promote sustainable growth NEW DELHI, November 15, 2013. The United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime, (UNODC) has underlined the need for a four point agenda for achieving probity in public procurement and corporate integrity to promote sustainable growth. The agenda, derived from studies conducted by the UN, calls for a model of business where ethical business is rewarded .The measures proposed included capacity building , dialogue amongst the private sector, government and law enforcement agencies, and corporate integrity in s ector s mo st vulnerable to corruption , such as real estate, roads, energy and healthcare , and enactment of legislation related to whistle - blower protection and public procurement and their effective implementation. These recommendations were spelled out today by Ms. Cristina Albertin, Regional Representative for UNODC in South Asia , at the conference at the launch of Alliance for Integrity(Afln), organized by FICCI in partnership with GIZ, the implementing arm of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperatio n and Development. AfIn is a business driven multi - stakeholder initiative that aims at promoting clean business practices and fair competition as a means to a stable, secure and responsible business investment climate. A number of multinational compani es, business associations, as well as government and non - government agencies have started a dialogue to understand the diverse perspectives, needs and expectations of relevant stakeholders for collaborative and sustained action on this issue. It aims to hi ghlight the efforts being undertaken by the corporate world to shape an ethical and compliant business environment. A major area of concern, she said, was that the private sector employees need to comply with targets without much consideration to how t hese targets can be met. It was, therefore essential to bring about a change of culture in business. A whopping 90% of the respondents from the private and law enforcement agencies underlined the need for capacity building for law enforcement officials o n economic crimes. Almost half the respondents from the government indicated that officials who have responsibilities in procurement need additional sensitization and training in probity. There is also a need to address corruption in SMEs. They need to be part of the dialogue and we need to listen to their ideas and proposals for solutions and ensure their representation in the ongoing dialogue on anti - corruption. “These findings need to translate into concrete action now,” Ms. Albertin emphasized. M r. Stefan Helming, Country Director, GIZ, in his remarks pointed out that the Alliance for Integrity aims at instituting a constructive dialogue between businesses to get the implementation of corporate practices and policies right in the conduct of everyd ay business activities and eradicate illegal business practices. GIZ draws on its extensive expertise on global issues in its work with emerging economies. “We operate on behalf of the German Government in fields such as financial market stability, econo mic growth, fair trade, climate change, water and the Millennium Development Goals,” he said. Mr. Sidharth Birla, President - elect, FICCI, stated that Governance is the key to competitiveness and inclusive growth. Given India’s ambitions for economic development, good governance is critical for us. “It is now impossible to break the link between good governance and sustainable development. Of course the governance mechanisms should be efficient, equitable and enforceable,” he said. Apart from laws, deep reforms and simplifications are overdue both in legal and administrative areas. This provides certainty and contemporary clarity to investor s, both domestic and global. Despite policy dynamism, it is practicalities which are in the way of investment actually taking place. As a business organization, FICCI continues to pursue these reforms seriously. He said, “There is a need for organization s to spend more time and effort on internal controls and strict integrity policies. Companies must support the culture of integrity and compliance with strong training for greater transparency. To capture the essence of my thoughts very briefly, I invoke a Japanese quote “the reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour”. On this occasion, a report by IICA, GIZ and gTrade entitled ‘Corporate Governance and Business Responsibility’ was released. This report is the first empir ical assessment of large Indian companies on how they fare in compliance and how, if at all, they go beyond compliance in addressing the risks they face and the opportunities they see through the lens of sustainability (environmental, social and economic) and transparency to their stakeholders. Some of the main findings of the study are that while most companies seem to be complying with mandatory provisions, beyond compliance trends on voluntary norms are far from satisfactory levels. The period follow ing the financial crisis saw the largest year - on - year change in compliance with both mandatory and voluntary provisions. The events of the financial crisis seem to have made companies more careful about their performance on regulatory adherence. The repo rt notes that on a more nuanced level, it is observed that, in the case that policy changes seem to be in the offing (through suggestive policy guidelines that may be non - mandatory in nature at the outset), the analysed listed companies started to respond to possible changes in the mandatory policy framework as a form of pre - emptive compliance. Furthermore, companies seem to be fairly compliant on mandatory policies around corporate governance such as institution of committees etc, yet when it comes to em bedding stakeholder priorities within substantive business operations, performance is dismal. It was seen that while most of the Sensex companies complied with the mandatory parameters selected (94% in 2012) - only 75% of the unlisted entities complied w ith mandatory regulations. It was also found that in 2011, around 29% of unlisted companies adopted/claimed to adhere to voluntary norms, while the compliance trend has been increasing from 38% to 53% of the total number of Sensex companies. MEDIA DIVIS ION - FICCI ------------------