In New Zealand…
In the past week our Auditor General, John Ryan, has insisted that Lester Levy change the accounts of Te Whata Ora. An attempt had been made to include some of this year’s expenditure in last year’s accounts. This would have allowed the government to blame Labour for over-expenditure. I do hope that Levy follows through with his threat to sue Alesha Verrall when she pointed out how dishonest this was. The glib brushing aside by Levy that this was just an accounting debate is complete rubbish. What the Auditor General was adhering to were the ethics of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.
In the UK
As I lay in hospital for a month, I was rivetted to the Post Office Enquiry in the UK. What was under consideration was what happens when a state function is corporatised and ethics are left at the door and greed prevails.
One person stood out, who was a lawyer who was working for the Post Office. At the inquiry it was demonstrated that the CE of the Post Office had written a meeting note that this in house solicitor was probably more loyal to her professional conduct requirements and put her integrity as a lawyer above the interests of the business. Let’s not forget that the CE is an ordained Anglican priest. How did her actions line up with the guidance of the Gospels?
This lawyer was asked whether she put her professional duties at the forefront of her work. She says that she tried to.
‘I was put in a position where I couldn’t do my job,’ she said about her resignation in 2013. ‘I couldn’t deliver on it.’
A court KC asked if she signed an NDA when she made a settlement agreement with the Post Office to resign, and whether she has since been released from it. ‘I hope so,’ she said.
How a woman of the cloth, the CE, who was under consideration to become an Anglican Bishop, could be so ethically unsound is amazing and says a lot about corporate ethics of some people.
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