Ethical Lens October 2012

October 2012

Have you seen our latest reports, read about CIMA’s accomplishments in corporate responsibility, or heard about paragraph 47 from the Rio+20? Read all about it in Ethical Lens, CIMA’s newsletter about ethics and sustainability.

DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE

Ethics are important to me because… “…The management of an organisation’s funds is core

to its credibility in the eyes of stakeholders. Confidence in those who maintain the financial controls, standards and records is critical to that credibility and to the ability of those people to operate effectively. As the Chief Financial & Operating Officer of CIMA I must operate to the highest ethical standards.”

John Windle, Chief Financial & Operating Officer

NEWS Managing Responsible Business Earlier this year we saw the release of the CGMA Managing Responsible Business report. In the light of this report the Accountant, together with CIMA and AICPA, hosted a panel discussion with experts in the field of ethics and accounting. Watch the webcast of the discussion on the CGMA website. Shortly after the report’s launch in Malaysia and Singapore, CIMA SE Asia signed up to a corporate integrity pledge, drafted by the Malaysia Institute of Integrity’s (IIM). So far more than 50 companies – including AirAsia, Tesco Malaysia, Google Malaysia and Shell Malaysia - have signed up to the pledge, promising to uphold a business environment that is fair, transparent and free from corruption.

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October 2012 REPORTS Acting under pressure This report highlights the different areas where management accountants might experience pressure in the workplace, set against the wider ethical environment. The report is based on the global CGMA ethics survey responses of 1760 CIMA members and students from more than 80 markets around the world. It also draws on focus groups, involving members and students, held in the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and South Africa. The findings affirm that the overall operating culture, support from management and transparent operations complying with both local and international regulations and norms, are essential to support responsible business.

Fact or fiction In October CIMA will launch its final report in the Fact or Fiction series. Fact or Fiction: Global discusses business partnering globally and also sheds light on issues in four CIMA markets - the United Kingdom, Singapore, Poland and South Africa - where roundtable discussions have been held. Although there were clear similarities of challenges across all markets, each country had specific issues related to both their business and cultural context. Read more from the Fact or Fiction series and the challenges and possibilities with business partnering at http://www.cimaglobal.com/businesspartner EVENTS

Managing Responsible Business Sri Lanka launch In May CIMA Sri Lanka hosted an ethics event in relation to the recent CGMA Managing Responsible Business Report. Andrew Harding, Managing Director, was there to present the findings. Read more about the event in this cover by the Daily FT. Corporate culture Malaysia This October CIMA Malaysia will hold a roundtable discussion, exploring how leadership can best facilitate creating an ethical working environment. This event is arranged in relation to the Malaysia Institute of Integrity’s (MII) corporate integrity pledge that CIMA SE Asia signed up to earlier this year.

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October 2012 From ruin to resilience Tomorrow’s Company’s latest lecture, by John Hurrell, chief executive of Airmic, discussed how risk and related issues must be at the core of business strategy. Further, Mr Hurrell explained how, when things go wrong, risks are almost always known by someone in the organisation but have often failed to be communicated. See a recording of the lecture here.

SUSTAINABILITY & INTEGRATED REPORTING CIMA Corporate Responsibility Curious about what CIMA does for its stakeholders or close community? On the CIMA corporate responsibility site we have published a 2011 Corporate Responsibility overview. Read about how we support the skill development of youth beyond our core qualification, where we stand on bribery and what strides have been made at our main office in London in regard to environmental impact. In addition to a wide range of innovation reports produced, we feed into policy development of integrated reporting and are signatories to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC).

Strength of the collective A number or countries reviewed in CIMA’s Acting Under Pressure report are ranked on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index as low. Where 10 marks a clean markets, Sri Lanka, Zambia, India and Pakistan all rank 3.3 and under. Operating in some countries can be challenging due to external circumstances. The UNGC recently released a publication about their 10th principle which urges companies to “fight against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery”. Companies are asked by the UNGC to take part in collective action – to get involved in multi-stakeholder dialogue and integrity or compliance pacts. The publication highlights some of the UNGC’s signatories have tackled corruption through organisational change and long-term thinking.

RIO +20 In June state and other representatives met in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the UN’s Conference on Sustainable Development. The three-day long conference resulted in a political document, The future we want. Paragraph 47 in this document, about corporate responsibility and sustainability reporting, caused a lot of discussion.

The finalised paragraph read: “We acknowledge the importance of corporate sustainability reporting and encourage companies, where appropriate, especially publicly listed and large companies, to consider integrating sustainability information into their reporting cycle”. This is much weaker than the initial zero-draft proposal, yet, on a more positive note, the Economist reported that many big companies were active in trying to keep paragraph 47 as was originally suggested. Among them were Aviva that started a Corporate Sustainability Coalition, which was lobbying for stricter agreements regarding sustainability reporting.

Read Claudia Kruse’s take on paragraph 47 in relation to the IIRC and integrated reporting here.

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October 2012 Sustainability reporting - integrated thinking Accounting for Sustainability (A4S) is pushing the sustainability reporting agenda. An initial step to sustainability reporting is to change the approach to how business is done and what its responsibilities are. A4S has published an article outlining 10 main steps to integrated thinking. One of these steps is “monitoring and reporting sustainability performance”. Brandix Group, a clothing company based in Sri Lanka, is an example of where doing exactly this has proved a success. By declaring the carbon footprint for every item produced they have not only managed to make their company greener, they have also generated significant savings in energy and water use. Read more about the Brandix Group case in this CIMA report.

IFAC New chief executive Fayezul Choudhury has been appointed new chief executive of IFAC, and will join in February 2013. In a recent interview in the Accountant, Mr Choudhury expressed the hope to “contribute to the development of high quality international standards and guidance; development of strong professional accountancy organisations and accounting firms, and to high-quality practices by professional accountants; to promote the value of professional accountants worldwide; and to speak out on public interest issues where the accountancy profession’s expertise is most relevant”. Read more in this press release by IFAC. Proposed changes The International Ethics Standards Board of Accountants (IESBA) are currently consulting on proposed changes to the code of ethics addressing illegal acts, and when an accountant shall or have the right to override the principle of confidentiality. Read more here, or find the full exposure act document here. IFAC has requested comments on this proposal, email any comments by to IFAC electronically via their website by 15 December 2012.

ETHICS & BUSINESS Whistleblowing A recent article by Expolink explores the Bystander Effect, which refers to the common apathy of by-standers to intervene when faced with a wrongdoing or person in need. Recent studies show that 2025% of workers in the UK have seen wrongdoing in the workplace, but only about half of those reported to someone. One of the reasons why some people fail to report is that they worry about their own future.

Regulation around whistleblowing is increasing, and we see an emergence of initiatives to promote it around the globe. In Malaysia a whistleblowing centre was set up and in Dubai legislation to protect whistleblowers is under way.

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October 2012 MBA students score low in ethics The MoralDNA test produced by Roger Steare and Pavlos Stamboulides shows that MBA students score lower on questions regarding the ethics of obedience and care than their counterparts in other industries, according to an article in the Financial Times.

Professor Stearne suggests that this is due to the fact that business schools do not putting enough weight on business ethics. Another article from the Financial Times suggest that in regard to ethics, the problem is that business schools do not “walk the walk”.

Do the MoralDNA test here.

Banking and business Banks in the City of London are still under spotlight with spate of further scandals over the summer related to Libor fixing, money laundering and other bad practices. As highlighted in our 2011 CGMA survey, the tone from the top is seen as critical, and corporate culture and related ethical behaviours have been recognised as key failings. No doubt the coming months will see more revelations about leading banks as investigations continue. It has been estimated that over half a million customers have left the leading five banks during the first half of the year, taking their money to more “ethical orgnisations”.

Meanwhile, a regulatory reform is on its way with the Financial Services Authority (FSA) dissolving to re-emerge as the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The official changeover is expected in early 2013.

Despite scandals of the bank and a financial system in reform, car manufactruing in the UK is on the up. A strong corporate culture has been seen as success in relation to the current strength of car manufacturing. Both Jaguar Land Rover and Honda are known for their corporate culture. Honda’s managing director Dave Hodgetts explains to the BBC: “What we aim to do within Honda is very much follow the culture from our founder Soichiro Honda, who came up with the philosophy about fifty years ago.

Effectively it’s built on one key principle, which is treating all individuals with a great deal of respect.” Where banks failed, car manufacturers are showing how a strong corporate culture and an ethical backbone will impact positively on, and add value to, a company.

Business Ethics and Human Rights The UN’s Protect, Respect and Remedy framework, developed by UN special representative John Ruggie, are a set of guiding principles for business and human rights. The principles suggest that, as opposed to states which are assigned a duty to actively protect human rights, companies have a responsibility to respect human rights on all levels. This framework addresses the increasingly important issue about the relationship between human rights and business, and recognises the ability of global companies to influence positively on human rights-issues, as suggested in this article by the Guardian. The framework was formally adopted in mid 2011, and a recent article in Ethical Corporation explains that it will take a few more years before any specific examples of good practice that have emerged through the principles can be highlighted, but that the process of implementing them is underway nonetheless.

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October 2012 CIMA ETHICS AGENDA

Ethics resources CIMA has an extensive ethics resource bank available for its members, students or anyone else who finds it useful. We have a collection of articles, webcasts, case studies and reports, all kept up to date. Access the resources here.

Ethical dilemmas worksheet In order to support members and students CIMA has produced a tool to practice resolving an ethical dilemma, with help from the CIMA code of ethics. Ethical Dilemmas: what would you do? consists of five case studies with common dilemmas in the work place, and also includes an answer sheet, which allows you to compare your answers with CIMA’s guidance.

Find us at www.cimaglobal.com/ethics CIMA ethics helpline This free confidential helpline offers ethical guidance and how the code of ethics can be applied to CIMA members and students: 0800 358 7663 +44 (0)20 8849 2303 ethics@cimaglobal.com

Global Guidance Line Expolink – free from any telephone in your country 24 hours a day, 7 days a week: +(xx*) 800 3838 4000 *insert your country’s international access code +44 (0)1249 661957 www.cimaglobal.com/helplines

UK Legal Helpline LAW Express - for CIMA members and students in the UK. Gives access to information online for no charge and a low cost professional legal advice line: 0800 092 1980 www.cimaglobal.com/helplines

Please contact us with feedback or any ethics and sustainability stories you wish to highlight: camilla.hedborg@cimaglobal.com

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