KUALA LUMPUR, June 25 — Officials who turn greedy and unconscientious are frequently the root cause of administrative failures and dysfunction, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
Citing the troubled 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and the Enron scandal in the US as examples, she said both incidents occurred because leaders forgot their duty and abandoned their principles.
All the safeguards and laws in the world would be of no help if those entrusted to enforce these are compromised, she explained.
“In all these failures, there were regulations in place, governance mechanisms and reporting systems.
“Yet, they all failed because all of those individuals behind these crises stopped listening to their conscience and succumbed to greed,” she said at the opening of the Asean Corporate Responsibility and Sustainable Development Summit 2018 here.
In meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) set by the United Nations, Dr Wan Azizah said it was necessary to ask if a country’s leaders have the political will to do so.
She also stressed that the initiative must be led by those who are genuinely committed to the goals, rather than those seeking to use these as opportunities for personal advancement.
“It cannot be treated as just another fad. Leaders have to be committed and not merely involved in it,” she said.
Stressing that corporate social responsibility ventures must have clear objectives, she said there were many that appear to be ad hoc, made little impact and were consequently unsustainable.
Matters can be improved if firms became invested in ensuring their CSR activities resulted in tangible benefits to the community instead of simply eyeing the publicity and concentrating on burnishing their company image.
“In our haste to fulfil KPIs, leaders typically do not emphasise on leading with conscience.
“Our business schools teach our managers how to achieve efficiency and ROIs rather than the role of conscience in leadership and decision making,” she said.
