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Transparency, Honesty, and Eco-Consciousness Big in Week’s Business-Ethics News

May 5th, 2008 • Posted in: News

Siemens whacked with huge loss in wake of corruption probe; oil and gas companies are not forthcoming on extraction rights, according to TI report; a tourism group tries to reduce industry’s carbon footprint; and executive resigns after lying on résumé

VARIOUS DATELINES
Several angles on business ethics were featured in reports from the world press last week. Among them:

• German engineering giant Siemens last week announced a 67-percent slump in second-quarter net profits, a loss apparently linked to the aftershocks of a huge corruption scandal, reports the publication Spiegel Online. On Wednesday of last week, a law firm hired to probe Siemens’ problems found evidence of compliance violations in all of the parts of the conglomerate that it examined, Spiegel reports. The scandal centers on an estimated $2.1 billion in dubious payments, suspected to be bribes used to secure business for the engineering colossus in various nations, according to the BBC.
• Many oil and gas companies do not fully disclose the fees they pay to governments for extraction rights, creating opportunities for corruption, the watchdog group Transparency International claims. The anti-graft group claims that ExxonMobil is as secretive as Russian rival Lukoil and Chinese firm National Offshore Oil Corp. when it comes to reporting extraction-rights payments, according to a report from Forbes. Transparency International chair Huguette Labelle told Forbes: “The tragic paradox — that many resource-rich countries remain poor — stems from a lack of data on oil and gas revenues and how they are managed. Companies must do more to increase transparency.”
• Tourism executives are trying urgently to shrink the industry’s oversized carbon footprint, according to a report from the Associated Press, which covered the Pacific Asia Travel Association meeting in Bangkok. “There are no simple solutions,” Anna Pollack, head of a British tourism consultancy, told the AP. “Tourism is both a victim of and a contributor to climate change,” she said. “We’ve had a free lunch so far,” she added. “The industry hasn’t paid for the water it’s taken for golf courses, for emissions into the air, or the unique cultural and natural attractions tourists experience.” Participants spoke about various efforts to reduce the industry’s carbon footprint, including biofuel for airplanes, resorts built “green from the ground up,” and even recyclable golf tees made from bamboo.
• Bloomberg repots that Gregory Probert, the chief operating officer of nutritional supplement maker Herbalife Ltd., resigned last week after reportedly faking an academic degree. He had claimed a master’s degree from a program he never finished, according to Bloomberg, which notes that Probert joins a growing list of executives from major firms who have been booted after lying on their résumés.

Sources: Spiegel Online, Apr. 30 — Forbes, May 1 — AP, May 1 — Bloomberg, May 1.

For more information, see: Related Newsline story, Nov. 13, 2007 — Related Newsline story, Nov. 5, 2007 — Related Newsline story, Aug. 27, 2007 — Related Newsline story, Aug. 20, 2007 — Related Newsline story, Jan. 8, 2007.

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1. Ethics Newsline » News » Former Siemens Chair Will Not Face Criminal Charges, Prosecutors Say on May 13th, 2008 at 12:48 am:

   [...] more information, see: Related Newsline story, May 5 — Related Newsline story, Jan. 28 — Related Newsline story, Nov. 13, 2007 [...]

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