The Pearl Initiative, a leading not-for-profit organisation working to improve corporate transparency across the region, recently hosted a roundtable discussion in partnership with Siemens on integrity practices in the region.

Experts from international, regional and local Bahrain-based organisations convened to discuss the business value of tackling corruption through implementing corporate integrity best practices.

Carla Koffel, executive director of the Pearl Initiative, said: “For the last five years, the Pearl Initiative has been actively involved in encouraging businesses to embrace stronger policies of corporate governance and invest in robust integrity frameworks.

“Through our periodic roundtables, we aim to promote greater standards of transparency and accountability throughout the business community in the GCC region with the goal of creating a sustainable business environment. In collaboration with Siemens, we are moving closer to our objective of establishing a community of businesses leading the way in the implementation of corporate integrity best practices.”

The roundtable represented an important milestone in the Pearl Initiative’s mission of assessing corruption and advocating against it. Offering a dynamic platform for leadership teams across organisations to examine the latest corruption trends and debate the actual effectiveness of universally accepted best practices, the event also reviewed cost-effective methods that organisations can introduce to enhance their resilience in overcoming corruption.

Stefano De Vita, senior counsel for Siemens Middle East, said: “By hosting today’s roundtable, we were able to partake in a constructive and interactive dialogue with private and public entities alike. The session was full of innovative ideas, interests and topics concerning best practices on anti-corruption management and has facilitated a better understanding of the true cost of corruption on businesses today. We all agree that corruption has to be fought collectively, with various interest groups working together to combat it. Through continuous cooperation, we can achieve greater integrity.”

KPMG, a top audit, tax, and advisory firm, is a partner of the Pearl Initiative and supports many of its initiative and events including the on-going Integrity Programme. Nicholas Cameron, Partner and Head of Forensics at KPMG in the Lower Gulf was a keynote speaker during the event.
 
In his presentation, Cameron said: “The changing economic landscape and increasing market regulations create new business opportunities, but also generate new risks and potential threats. In addition, fast-paced technology advancement has also led to more sophisticated fraud schemes. Investments made in developing and updating corporate anti-corruption strategies can help organisations effectively prevent, detect and investigate fraud and misconduct as early as possible and minimise any adverse financial, reputational or operational impact.”

According to reports by the World Economic Forum, corruption increases the cost of doing business by up to 10 per cent on average. With growing awareness of the advantages of integrity in the workplace, entities around the world today seek to improve and formalise corporate integrity processes. This holds true in the GCC region as well, with multiple private and public sector organisations keen to implement strong integrity practices. – TradeArabia News Service