Across the world we hear about scams inside organisations, violation of ethics, financial irregularities, discriminatory practices, non-adherence to statutory and fiscal obligations.
What do they indicate? It is gross negligence of value-oriented governance from the senior management, the board members, the trustees and the agencies who are the core members of the organisation. A strong advisory board and the company trusteeship board is directly responsible for invoking the code of conduct related to every function of the organisation. This governance of ethics and values define the organisational policies, procedures, systems, process and how they are carried out without violating the laws of the land, laws of the judiciary, laws of banking regulations and fiscal agencies, labour laws and various other statutory, constitutional obligations towards the Government and the people who are stake holders.
Corporate governance is based on principles such as conducting the business with all integrity and fairness, being transparent with regard to all transactions, making all the necessary disclosures and decisions, complying with all the laws of the land, accountability and responsibility towards the stakeholders and commitment to conducting business in an ethical manner.
The stake holders could be the public, the employees, the financial agencies, the public sector bodies and many other institutions. The governing council has all the powers to define this functional conduct according to the defined procedures and codes of that particular function. Effective corporate governance is the belief and conviction that all obligations of the regulatory bodies are complied with.
kalpana@acl-india.in
Kalpana R Chennai
She is the founder of The Academy for Communication and Learning