Workplace integrity guarantees stability, security and maintains a high sense of standard for successive generations of the organisation, Director-General, Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, has said.

She said integrity was key in everyday business endeavours; declaring that there was, therefore, the need to establish and redefine leadership as a fundamental attribute no matter the level employees occupy within the organisation.

“In our recruitment and on-boarding processes, we need to look deeper to establish people’s background, attributes and values as key drivers towards identifying and aligning with the foresight of the organisation,” DCOP Addo-Danquah stated at the maiden edition of the Integrity Management Forum in Accra.

“We may have to even consider re-engaging our management teams and provide them refresher training on leadership in the workplace,” she added.

The forum, which was organised by e-Crime Bureau, seeks to equip participants to evaluate existing processes of employee recruitment and engagement with third-party service providers.

DCOP Addo-Danquah said it was imperative for managers to recognise their role in shaping organisational integrity and also to seize every available opportunity to create an environment that could strengthen the relationships and reputations on which their companies’ success depended on.

“Managers who fail to provide the needed leadership and also institute systems that facilitate true conduct are as guilty as those who conceive, execute, and knowingly benefit from corporate misdeeds.

“Unfortunately the thought behind success in Ghana has changed in the 21st Century. We seem to be saddled with a generation of young adult graduates who are keen to quickly acquire riches to remain competitive with lifestyle trends.”

She said the culture of lies, misappropriation of funds, forgery, chronic absenteeism, lack of productive employees and disregard for time management conducts were some of the cultural consequences being experienced today.

“It is about time we as professionals charted a new path – a path against self-seeking and personal elevation which has beset our corporate world today.

“I believe this is a sure way towards eliminating corruption and improving our private and public governance structures.”

DCOP Addo-Danquah cited that the 2016 Global Business Ethics Study revealed that 23 per cent of bribery in the private sector involves top managers, and about 32 per cent involves middle managers.

She said the findings identified that employees in the private sector employed by multinational companies were more likely to both feel pressure to compromise standards, as well as observe misconduct than employees in companies with a presence in only one country.

She said additionally, private sector suppliers were also more likely to feel pressured, observe misconduct and experience retaliation than non-supplier companies.

DCOP Addo-Danquah said industry research had proven that an integrity-based approach to ethics management combines a relationship between law and managerial responsibility for ethical behaviour.

She said though integrity strategies might vary in design and scope, employers must make the conscious effort in entrenching as a guiding principle to ensure values, aspirations, and patterns of thought and conduct were strictly adhered.

She said integrity management strategies should involve the development of ethical frameworks to govern processes to support institutions to uphold high reputational and compliance standards.

“We must continue to work together to foster and maintain a culture of honesty and integrity in the workplace, for the betterment of our companies and society at large.”

The Principal Consultant, e-Crime Bureau, Mr Alex Oppong said the character flaws of employees had a direct relationship with corporate misconduct and equally impact issues of non-compliance and unethical business practices of employees within the organisation.

Mr Albert Antwi Boasiako, the Cyber Security Advisor to the Communications Ministry, and founder of e-Crime Bureau said humans were prone to crime and therefore, cautioned employees against taking gifts from people in their line of duty.

Dr Edward Kwapong, President of the Institute of Human Resource Management Practitioners, Ghana, urged employers to undertake due diligence before recruiting people into their organisations.

e-Crime Bureau is the first digital forensics, fraud investigations and cyber security firm with a dedicated e-Crime Laboratory to operate in Ghana with operational representatives in Africa.

It provides state-of-the-art cyber security, fraud prevention and counterfeit detection solutions and e-crime investigations services to the law enforcement agencies, attorneys and paralegals, government agencies and corporate sector organisations across Africa.