Corporate scandals opening up doors

Local accountants are being warned not to become a corruption statistic as Enron and WorldCom have become and to come clean in their business dealings. Christine Sahadeo, Junior Finance Minister, was giving advice during a recent ACCA/ICATT/CAT graduation ceremony at Cascadia Hotel where she took the view that a world of opportunities has now opened up for accountants in the wake of these corporate scandals. Sahadeo said accountancy is one of the few professions that place so much emphasis on corporate governance. “We must therefore recognise the important role accountants play in the workplace and we must ensure we do not contribute or become a statistic in the Enrons and World Coms of this world,” she told graduates. For accountants, she said integrity means accountability, responsibility and transparency.

Sahadeo explained that in looking at the definition of integrity coming out of the Enron and World Com corporate scandals in the US, it is easy to understand why Enron CFO Andrew Fastow was indicted by a federal grand jury on 78 counts, including fraud and money laundering, and is serving a ten-year prison sentence and forfeiture of US$423.8 million. Enron CEO John Skilling was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigations. She said though these indiscretions and corporate financial scandals have created a world of opportunities for accountants, noting that apart from the compensation, there now appears to be a shortage of auditors and accountants.

Sahadeo reiterated that Government continues to strengthen the country’s corporate governance mechanisms through reform of the public procurement regime: a white paper is being drafted to be presented to Parliament shortly as well as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. She has insisted that State enterprises publish their audited financial statements in at least one daily newspaper. Sahadeo also added another ingredient for future managers of the country: emotional intelligence “When I recruit, I place more emphasis on a person’s attitude, ability to work in a team, people with high energy levels. I look for passion, I want to suggest to you that the recipe for success is being passionate in whatever you do. Passion is the energy that comes from bringing more of you in what you do,” she told graduates attending

She indicated that a recent Time magazine article showed that US president Abraham Lincoln was a towering political genius “not because he mastered the rules of the game, but because he possessed a remarkable array of emotional strengths.” Sahadeo explained that Lincoln possessed a type of “first class emotional intelligence” and quoted excerpts from a book entitled Primal Leadership — Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence to show how valuable emotional intelligence would be to persons in leadership positions in TT and leaders in the making. She added that “intellect alone will not make a leader” and leaders execute vision “by motivating, guiding, inspiring, listening, persuading and most critically through resonance.”