Growing up, irre-spective of our back-ground, we are all taught good behaviour, whether at home or elsewhere. We are also taught good manners and that is how at times parents and the community at large would judge our future. Generally, a well behaved child is believed to be destined for greater things in life. On the flipside of the coin, in business that is how an institution would be judged within the industry it operates. It is a given that no parent would want his/her child to be known for bad behaviour. Sometimes parents go to the extent of protecting their child, even though the child is at fault. We often find parents are quick to demand answers if the child is said to have behaved badly in their absence.

This is the attitude most institutions practice nowadays. Many institutions, even internationally, are over protective of their brand, which makes business sense. But they fail to deal with issues that could potentially taint their brand. With today's advances in technology and recruitment processes, institutions are able to conduct screening of candidates easily but once a person has entered the system, no further check-ups are conducted.

It often happens that once people are used to the system they become comfortable and their true character emerges. At times before long the person is involved in scandals, and it's not that the company made a wrong decision in employing the candidate but it's simply because a person's character will always reveal itself.

Without a proper platform or a tried and tested mechanism, it becomes almost impossible for senior management to come to know about their employee's bad behaviour in the workplace. However, institutions should always strive to provide relevant platforms that would allow employees, stakeholders and clients to be educated in how to deal with, handle or report bad behaviour. We cannot disassociate bad behaviour from unethical behaviour in the workplace. It is best international practice that every organisation should be governed in accordance with the applicable legislative prescripts as well as tailor made policies and procedural manuals. The legislative prescripts, policies and procedure manuals help institutions to guard against their employee's possible unethical behaviour and in turn protect their brand.

Very often, employees including senior and executive management do not know how to report the unethical behaviour of fellow colleagues without revealing their identity. Sometimes it becomes impossible to report any unethical behaviour if the proper structure is not provided. That is why it is critical that institutions and organisations should create platforms that allow for free, but most importantly confidential and anonymous reporting of these incidences.

The Corruption Hotline (TCH) provides this platform to both the private and public sector. We educate institutions at all levels from executives to junior staff level on how to report incidents of behaviour or conduct that is not in line with professional ethics without revealing their identity. We further ensure that the entire reporting process is kept confidential. People who report unethical behaviour are protected by the Protected Disclosures Act (PDA) Act 26 of 2000. All these processes are built around elements of King IV Report on corporate governance.

We provide a safe and secured reporting channel, which includes a Fraud Hotline, e-mail reporting, fax reporting, postal reporting and callback reporting. This is to allow accessibility for various levels of staff to blow the whistle on any matter relating to unethical behaviour thus allowing:

• Organisations to encourage whistle blowing and support the PDA principles by affording a channel for reporting governance issues, ethical dilemmas as well as providing for the deterrence, prevention and detection of corruption, fraud and other maladministration.
• Filtering of reports to custodians of governance to ensure that investigations and actions are taken in respect of the above matters.

A few examples of unethical behavior:

• Organisational level
• Failure to comply with legislative and legal framework
• Professional level
• Acting against regulatory standards and requirements
• General
• Collusion between employees and external parties in looting organisational resources
• Theft, fraud, corruption, etc.

TCH has over 25 years of combined experience in dealing with issues pertaining to irregular and unethical conduct including forensic investigation. We urge corporates, government and organisations of all nature and size to partner with us in providing a platform that deters unethical behaviour and that facilitates whistle blowing when the need arises.

T: 031 301 1823
charlene@thecorruptionhotline.co.za
www.thecorruptionhotline.co.za