Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

PwC Luxembourg put recently online a video clip, which is an ad for CSR, to show its involvement in Corporate Social Responsibility actions.

The company does definitely a lot for the community.

But when looking carefully the video there is a question: To what extent another company with money and that is not an auditor would do other things?

In other words the video does not focus on what CSR implies actually for an auditor.

Five values are quoted in an agenda:
- Market place
- Environment
- People
- Culture
- Ethics

Ethics should have been the first value .


Let's analyse the film with the time allocated for each topic (time of the start of the topic):

Introduction : 00:00
Agenda : 00:32
Market Place : 00:37
Environment : 01:26
People : 02:13
Culture : 04:13
Ethics : 05:26

Ethics is given 00:04 seconds in the videoclip. Topics coming after 05:30 have nothing to do with ethics especially for an auditor : These are :
- People Survey (05:30) : The picture of the "Code of conduct" appears a fraction of second at 05:39
- Staff day (05:44)
- PwC serving the city of Esch/Alzette (05:45)
- Brainstorming with Nicolas Vanier (05:51)
- CSR rôle-play (05:58)
- PwC for nature (06:00)
- Staff Satisfaction (06:05)


Conclusion : 06:20
End : 07:03

We can conclude that the whole film has a duration of 423 seconds (7:03 minutes) of which 4 seconds (5 with the picture of the "Code of Conduct") are relating to ethics but just to show a title : there is unfortunately no examples of implemented and proved ethics for the auditor in the framework of CSR.

I hope ethics concerns are not allocated only 0.012% (5/423) of the time in the framework of audit assignments.

PwC is definitely a good company but I find it a pity that they should not realise the risks in a business world with more and more transparency and where dysfunctions will be less and less tolerated all the more than they are public and official and take place in a small country where everybody knows everyone. Furthermore Luxembourg is no longer a sanctuary : other countries may involve auditors in Luxembourg.

I wish I could help them. I sent many applications with no result. I must be too faithful for the business. But I think I would abide by the "Code of conduct" and help staff to respect it, provided that it is not a charade.





Video

Know more about actual CSR

I have contacted with complete confidence some PwC professionals to ask what they think of the dysfunctions at PwC Luxembourg: focus on the growth, client-oriented rather than stakeholder-oriented, no issuance of data on economic criminality, financial director that does not comply with the stated ethics…

One of these expert answered: Thanks to stop sending such inopportune e-mails.

I was very disappointed. The attitude definitely means that PwC professionals do not dare to face internal issues and to tighten up the ship for dysfunctions that are public and furthermore emphasized by the small size of a country where they are observed.

Is it actually “inopportune” to be willing to protect and save the reputation of a brand like PwC?

Who protect the best the reputation? Those who tolerate dysfunctions and relating risks by denying public issues or refusing to repudiate such issues like the professionals I contacted? Or those acting as watchdogs like I do who call for responsibility and credibility of the profession: there must be no gap between what is stated and what is done publicly. There must be no support for those who behave publicly in a way that does not comply with business ethics and a "code of conduct".
What about dysfunctions in the framework of the audits with the professional secrecy? What about the implementation of whistleblowing for unethical behaviors?



Clients should definitely consider to fire all professionals that are not credible anymore in their assignments as they support public situations that does not comply with the stated ethics.

Stakeholders should not rely anymore on companies audited by professionals that do not repudiate public and official facts of bad management and bad governance.

Trust is definitely broken and I am sad of that.



"He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and he who is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much" (Lk 16: 10)

In the framework of the forthcoming Communication of the European Commission on the future of Eurojust and the European Judicial Network, as well as the envisaged follow-up under the Portuguese Presidency of the European Union, Eurojust organised a seminar with the support of the Portuguese Presidency.

This seminar took place on 29 and 30 October 2007 in Lisbon.

Eurojust - European Union's Judicial Cooperation Unit - is a body of the European Union, whose objective is the cooperation in criminal matters among national authorities within the European Union.

Franco Frattini, Vice-President of the European Commission, Michael Kennedy, Eurojust President, Pinto Monteiro, Attorney General and several experts on judicial cooperation from all Member States attended this event.

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