11 Dec 2017

University of Botswana Vice Chancellor, Professor David Norris says ethical conduct is the way to gain investor confidence in any business organisation.

Giving a keynote address at the first UB/DCEC Botswana Business Ethics Forum (BBEF) recently, Professor Norris said companies must balance the ideal against the practical in order to address the need to produce a reasonable profit for the shareholder with honesty in business practices and safety in the workplace.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the symposium challenges us to tackle issues of ethics in both the public and private business sectors and brings together academics, corporate and civil society leaders and the media to discuss, educate and explore best practices and challenges,” he said.

Professor Norris said the symposium was in line with this year’s United Nations anti-corruption theme: 'United against corruption for development, peace and security,' saying it was also an integral part of Botswana’s drive of zero tolerance to corruption.

He further said corruption led to a diminished business climate whilst it reduced business credibility.

“I think it is important to consider the potential adverse effects when business chooses to deviate from ethical practice,” he said.

He also said when there were revelations about corrupt business practices, customers lose respect and trust and require company officials to spend valuable time and resources to monitor the fallout and reassure clients that the company still had credibility.

The Vice Chancellor said it was important to note that corruption could hamper business growth as investors would be skeptical of doing business with companies and institutions that were known for corruption.

“Seeking investment to grow your firm will be much harder when bribes or in-kind favours are required, or when your business has a history of corruption,” Professor Norris said.

Further, he said corruption fueled criminal enterprises and eventually affected society in which the business operated as its effects usually ended up feeding black market interests and organised crime.

He added that in a competitive business climate, the ethical lines were blurred by the urgency to make sales, outmaneuver competition and leverage anything and everything to close the deal.

For his part,  BICA technical and public sector accounting services director, Mr Eddie Bayen said in order for every career to be a well-respected profession there was need for a strong code of ethics and compliance.

“In every profession we need to have a regulating body to protect public interest. Ethics are there to help protect public interest as well,” he said.

Mr Bayen said there was need to engage in discussions to map a way forward to fighting corruption.

“The call of silence will swallow the nation if we don’t address issues of corruption,” he said.

Mr Rebana Mmereki, the chairperson of the BBEF steering committee and lecturer at UB, said the symposium was meant for stakeholders to share information and ideas to see how far they could go in terms of sensitising the community.

He said issues of ethics were of concern as they impacted on how people relate to one another. ENDS