The rise in economic crime, the urge for expanding the public domain with information that would otherwise be considered classifieds, the right of the individual to know all and the general decline in the moral standards as understood in yesteryears have all given rise to an eternal debate on transparency, accountability and good corporate governance.
These were also the centre of attention at the annual Indian Newslink Sir Anand Satyanand Lecture held at Stamford Plaza Hotel in Auckland on July 29, 2013.
Vino Ramayah, one of our most respected corporate leaders, was the Guest Speaker, and for well over an hour, he engaged an elite audience of fellow corporate chiefs, law enforcers, barristers, solicitors and decision-makers with thoughts, questions and comments on whether transparency was a myth or reality.
He was joined by Mai Chen, Managing Partner of Chen Palmer Public Law and Employment Law Specialists as the Master of Ceremonies.
Former Governor-General Sir Anand Satyanand, in whose name we established the Lecture series three years ago, set the trend for the evening’s deliberations with his curtain raiser speech.
“During the past several months a number of events have occurred which have rated New Zealand’s standing in the world on the matter of openness and credibility. The Corruption Perception Index (CPI), authored in Germany in December 2012, rated New Zealand Number 1 equal and with a score of 90 out of a 100,” he said.
“In January and February this year, however, a poll within New Zealand was conducted by Colmar Brunton and was included in an international study published just a few weeks ago. This stated that more than half of the world’s people believe global corruption has worsened over the past two years and found a lack of trust in the police, courts and political parties,” he added.
As Sir Anand mentioned, the New Zealand component of the Survey involved 1000 New Zealanders, about 3% of who said that they had bribed someone, at least once, during the past year.
“The reasons stated for doing so ranged from it being the only way to obtain a service, in order to obtain cheaper service, to speed things up or as a gift in gratitude. Some if this was quite shocking for many New Zealanders,” he said.
As mentioned in this newspaper recently, the New Zealand Chapter of Transparency International (of which Sir Anand is the Patron) is completing a seven-month intensive study of our country’s public sector and the matter of transparency and its adherence will be addressed in results to be published in the next few weeks.
Mr Ramayah’s Lecture demonstrated not only the intensive research that he had conducted in presenting facts and figures, but also brought to the fore the dilemma faced by today’s corporate world.
Warning against the complacency that surrounds the ‘perception’ that New Zealand is among the three top ‘least corrupt countries in the world,’ he exploded the myth.
He posed the following questions:
Has our current legislation requiring various forms of disclosures produced accountability? Does the legislation go far enough in terms of opening Government agencies to scrutiny about the amount of information they hold on individuals? Are there sufficient safeguards for example in the legislation currently before Parliament relating to the ability of the Government Communications Security Bureau to track individual communications?
Does the requirement for audited reports and adherence to international financial standards ensure greater transparency of corporations?
The answer to most, if not all of these questions, is a depressing ‘No.’
“As he mentioned, the amount of information required by international financial standards with differing opinions as to the level of disclosure required is altogether confusing and does not help the lay investor unless of course you have a PhD in Finance or accounting,” he said.
Mr Ramayah said that even those vested with the role of being transparency watchdogs have got into trouble.
He cited the example of Standard and Poors, which is being subject to class action suits around the world for giving Lehman Brothers AAA credit rating just a month before its collapse.
Even as people who attended the Lecture and those who have read the reports that appeared in our August 1 issue ponder over the issues raised by Mr Ramayah, there is already expression of interest about next year’s event.
Mr Ramayah, Ms Chen and others have raised the standard of the Indian Newslink Sir Anand Satyanand Lecture to a new high and we are gratified that the series is beginning to merit wider attention.
