Note to Members

The Corruption Prevention Network (CPN) is a network of individuals who are willing to learn from one another, and to share knowledge in fraud and corruption prevention areas.

CPN’s primary objective is to educate subscribers through:

• the lunch time seminars;
• the monthly discussion groups; and
• the annual forum.

Lunch time seminars are very popular and well attended.

The hour-long discussion groups provide an opportunity to raise awareness of issues associated with corruption prevention e.g whistle blowing, workplace culture and cyber security ethics. They are an excellent forum to share strategies in addressing these issues. Each panel is restricted up to (to a maximum of) twelve participants to ensure effective contribution. Discussions are structured around scenarios.

One of the scenarios was about Tim and his workmate Harry who recently joined the organisation. They both work in the same area of procurement in the organisation. Tim is a matter-of-fact person, whilst Harry is more sociable. Tim has noticed that Harry is very “matey” with his clients and Tim has a funny feeling that something is not right.

 Tim is unsure what to do. If he asks Harry outright, it may spoil their working relationship. Alternatively, if he looks too closely at what Harry is doing, Harry may become suspicious and feel that something is wrong.

Tim finally goes to see his supervisor and tells him of his worries. The supervisor is not really interested in what Tim is saying and tells him he is worrying about nothing. This response does not surprise Tim, as he knows that the supervisor is not really interested as long as things are running okay, and will not want to rock the boat or draw attention to his section.

Interesting discussions took place around:

• What should Tim do?
• What should the company do?
• Where do responsibilities lay?
• What role does leadership & culture play?
• What mechanism/systems/structures should be place at the company to help people in situations similar to Tim?

Key learnings were:

• The importance of “tone at the top”
• Situations are often “grey” because they may present ethical dilemmas.
• Organisational sub-cultures may develop their own interpretation of the organisation’s values: these become “shadow values”
• Encourage discussions of grey areas at team meetings to uncover shadow values and query whether these shadow values align with the organisation values.
• The need to have robust internal channels that lie outside the usual chain of command.
• The value in having sources of advice to deal with situations that lie outside the usual chain of command.

If you are interested in becoming part of a new group or joining an existing group depending on your interests, as a way forward we may just hold the discussion group on a specific topic so that those interested only in that topic would attend. If so, please forward to the secretary@corruptionprevention.net the following details:

• Your contact details (name, and area you are working in)
• Your ‘interest’ topics; and
• Whether Wed or Fridays (it will be 12:30 pm -13:30 pm), and you will be placed on the waiting list.

Note the meetings are not every week but dependent on interest, on a monthly or bimonthly basis.