PROFESSIONAL OPINIONS
Financial gain tops doing the right thing, new survey shows
Ethics survey reveals professionals' opinions and willingness to blow the whistle on corruption
Only 9% of professionals working in the public sector believe their leaders are ethical, while a substantial 66% of private sector professionals believe theirs are. And despite the growth of a powerful and pervasive corporate governance industry, only 26% of professionals across both the public and private sectors believe that doing the right thing is more important than financial success. These are some of the findings of the inaugural Anti-Intimidation and Ethical Practices Forum (AEPF) Ethical Practices Survey, released on Monday. Almost 40% of the 1,890 professionals surveyed said they had reported unethical behaviour. The survey revealed that 25% of professional civil servants feared for their lives when blowing the whistle, compared with 10% in the private sector; 28% of public servants said they had been threatened and intimidated when speaking out against wrongdoing. The survey collected responses from professionals in finance, internal audit, accounting, risk management, go...
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