To educate businesses on how they can react and protect themselves, the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Singapore (ICPAS) has partnered with Harry Elias Partnership LLP to host a Corporate Ethics & Governance Seminar. The seminar took place on December 3, 2012 from 8.30am to 12.30pm at Ballroom A, Four Seasons Hotel Singapore.
Over 200 people attended the seminar. Participants of the seminar not only learnt how to identify risks, but were also taught how they can adopt preventive measures and various tools to enhance their business management. The audience largely consisted of accounting and legal professionals, directors, CEOs, CFOs and senior management of public listed companies.
The seminar introduced existing applications that businesses can adopt to their organizational advantage. Companies were also taught how they can devise and apply whistle-blowing policies in addition to critical risk management policies that address the upcoming ethical issues of today’s business world.
Philip Fong, managing partner and head of regulatory compliance and commercial fraud at Harry Elias, was the panel moderator at the seminar. He believes that Singapore, which has whistle-blower protections scattered among a number of different acts and regulations, will eventually have a more comprehensive whistle-blowing law. “I think it’s a matter of time,” he said on the sidelines of the event.
But the best-designed regulations and processes are meaningless without a sense of civic responsibility, he argued. “What is required is actually education and acceptance,” Mr Fong said.
About the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Singapore
ICPAS is the largest professional body throughout Singapore. They are constantly developing, supporting, and enhancing the status and integrity of their profession for 49 years now. The Institute is also connecting and extending their network through professional development, making events, and providing information resources to businesses and industries in Singapore. ICPAS is also a proud member of international professional organizations such as International Innovation Network, ASEAN Federation of Accountants, International Federation of Accountants, and Asia-Oceania Tax Consultants’ Association.