Jospong Group extends culture of ethics to others
The Jospong Group of Companies, the parent company of Zoomlion Ghana Limited, has held a workshop to inculcate the culture of ethics, integrity and compliance with internationally accepted standards in its over 42 subsidiary companies and partners.
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According to the group, the issue of ethics in business had become very crucial and embracing international compliance standards had transformed Zoomlion into a more effective, integral and trusted partner.
It noted that although the Corporate Compliance Programme was initially challenging, it had “become an opportunity to turn things round and embrace a new compliance culture across all local and foreign subsidiaries of the Jospong Group”.
Topics treated at the one-day workshop, which also attracted the company’s bankers, vendors, consultants, regional officers, district assembly members, among other partners, included “Business ethics”, “Integrating ethics in business organisations”, “Anti-bribery and corruption”, and “Ethical dilemmas”.
The workshop was held in collaboration with the World Bank and KPMG, a global network of professional firms providing audit, tax and advisory services, and was informed by the adoption by Zoomlion of the international standard of compliance after it had gained a World Bank Certified Corporate Compliance Programme.
Essence of workshop
Speaking to the Daily Graphic on the essence of the workshop, the Chief Strategy Officer of the Jospong Group, Mr Mokhles Bustami, said “Zoomlion Ghana embarked on implementing Corporate Compliance Programme close to three years ago and the Jospong Group found it fitting that the programme be implemented in the entire Jospong Group”.
“With our partners or consultants, KPMG, we have set forth to share our experience and our knowledge of compliance with all stakeholders, partners and even our competitors because we believe there is a true value in this programme for Ghana and in the West Africa region,” he said.
Mr Bustami said the workshop was part of the due diligence required for the programme and had the advantage of empowering and equipping the companies with globally known and recognised systems and programmes of transparency in doing business.
“As a large company and group of companies, [you should recognise that] the more you expand, the more the risk in our market. With that, you have to equip yourself with a robust compliance programme that can keep you going ahead and meeting the standards of the international market,” he noted.
Mr Bustami said the advantages included openness to all donor funds, all private banks and businesses that saw the company as an institution that had the compliance programme and allowed them to do business with the company in a very transparent way.
“Since our programme was visited by the World Bank on September 23, 2015, we’ve received many invitations and calls from donor programmes, donor funds and banks to submit proposals to participate in the projects that they are offering,” he stated.
Role of KPMG
Speaking on behalf of KPMG, Mr Andy Akoto, said the company was collaborating with the Jospong Group to find ways that would help its companies to improve their ways of doing business, especially with regard to ethics.
“In the world today, if you don’t employ the accepted standards and ethics, you will suffer some punishment and that is why, together with the leadership of Zoomlion and the Jospong Group, we are organising this workshop in the hope that those here could also impact those who could not turn up. When you do your work ethically, it brings much gain,” he said.
Contributions
Mr Akoto led an interactive session on business ethics, which defined ethics as “the basic concepts and fundamental principles of decent human conduct”, among other definitions.
“If an organisation can be trusted, it starts from the top, which is why leaders of Jospong must make sure to attain those standards,” he said.
Participants submitted that if staff were underpaid, it was very difficult for them to do the right thing and also leaders needed to set good examples for their workers to emulate.