LETTERS: The pandemic has caused enormous health and economic challenges the world over.
To make things worse, criminals are now looking for ways to profit from the crisis. Shady individuals and organisations will always seek to benefit from times of adversity.
According to a 2020 Financial Action Task Force analysis, criminals continue to benefit from opportunities created by the pandemic, with increased instances of counterfeit medical goods, fraudulent investment projects, integrated cybercrime schemes and exploitation of government economic stimulus programmes.
The analysis also touched on online cases of child exploitation due to increased time spent on virtual content, property crime as a result of vacant properties, and medical supply contract corruption.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, money laundering continues to be a critical enabler of Covid-19-related organised crime, with a significant increase in fraud such as the acquisition of illicitly obtained genuine medical equipment and medicine, non-delivery of advertised equipment and redirection, interception and misuse of funds.
Anti-corruption and "anti-ethical conduct" policies must be addressed during the Covid-19 pandemic. The economic strategies implemented amid the pandemic have created opportunities for corruption and deceit.
Aside from the compassion of millions of frontline workers, government officials, private citizens and companies, others have tried to profit from the situation at the cost of the public and pandemic victims. Therefore, it is essential that all leaders serve as role models.
Now is the time for the authorities to consider what human governance criteria may be helpful, as well as create better indicators, measures or benchmarks.
Businesses, organisations and political parties with the capacity to choose future chief executive officers, directors or senior management teams should pay attention to these indicators.
The concept of human governance was introduced in 2015 as an internal mechanism to guide individuals or humans in their development.
Human governance encompasses attitudes, religion, belief systems, culture and ethics to foster a moral culture with high ethical standards and moral conduct.
Human governance, to put it in another way, is a parameter for evaluating people's fundamental values, ethics and behaviour in companies or institutions, and it is led by the individual's own values.
Being a decent human being is what human governance is all about. Human governance is the essential ingredient that all leaders, regardless of status or political affiliation, must embrace in this pandemic scenario.
The prevalence of corporate misconduct, such as corporate financial crime and corruption, has emphasised the need for human governance during this Covid-19 pandemic.
As we approach the endemic phase, we hope Malaysia has a comprehensive plan in place. Human governance is proposed as a governance system that includes human qualities, such as personality traits of people managing businesses.
A group of Universiti Teknologi Mara academics has taken the initiative to develop the Corporate Ethical Identity Index System, which can evaluate how well firms conform to corporate ethics while including some human governance criteria.
After considering expert views, the final checklist of 283 completed items was produced using the three-step process in qualitative and quantitative research.
It is hoped that the authorities will develop a reliable approach that incorporates human governance qualities as indicators in choosing leaders or managers with high ethical values.
PROFESSOR DR ROSHIMA SAID
Associate Fellow,
Accounting Research Institute,
Faculty of Accountancy,
Universiti Teknologi Mara
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR DR MAHADIR LADISMA @AWIS
Director of Community
Network Centre, Office of Industry,
Community and Alumni Network; Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Administrative Science & Policy Studies, Universiti Teknologi Mara
SALMIWATI OTHMAN
Deputy Registrar,
Universiti Teknologi Mara
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times