Neill saddened by business ethics survey
Lord Neill, chairman of the committee on Standards in public life, has responded to an Accountancy Age survey on ethics in business by saying formal rules could be formulated to regulate behaviour.
Speaking at CIPFA’s annual conference in Brighton, on the day his committee’s own annual report was published, Lord Neill said he found the results of the Big Question survey ‘very sad’.
Results of the survey showed 25% of the accountants that responded said ethics did not play a part in business.
Lord Neill said: ‘I find the result very sad and unfair to the many businesses which make huge efforts on themselves and indeed on all their employees to maintain high standards.
‘As we know there are countries where it is extremely difficult to do business without indulging in corrupt practices.’
After his speech to around 900 delegates, Lord Neill said the OECD was the one body capable of creating formal rules of behaviour for business. He added that he felt business could learn something from the rules regulated by his own committee.
He said ‘I would hope there is a read-across because I think there’s a great deal of interest. Something could be done, not by my committee, by the OECD. If the figures are true then that is a cause for concern.’
Big Question: Ethics ignored by one in four finance directors