Corporate Governance
Forums 2022

Corruption issues have put a big strain on the economic systems of ASEAN countries, which rob the organisations of their revenues and damage social trust and justice. Business integrity has been an essential element to enhance corporate competitiveness in the current business environment, where greater transparency and stronger sense of corporate responsibility are demanded.

Since 2020, SIAS, in collaboration with NUS Centre for Governance and Sustainability, supported by ASEAN CSR Network has embarked on a corporate disclosure on Business Integrity in ASEAN which evaluates the corporate disclosure level on anti-corruption policy and strategy of the top fifty listed companies from stock exchanges. This biannual research also provides some insights on corporate strategy pertaining to business integrity. Has there been any improvement on the business integrity standards since 2020? What roles can companies, directors, management, shareholders and all the stakeholders do to uphold a higher integrity standards?

In the current dynamic business environment, Board Diversity no longer means achieving gender ratio, but also, an immediate call for response in the skillset and experience of the directors. With more global institutional investors and funds expecting more accountability from companies and will vote against companies without a diverse board, what can companies do to improve Board Diversity? It has been 10 years since Singapore’s market started advocating for Board Diversity, what has changed and what’s more to be done?

Whilst the Code of Corporate Governance provides guidance on the setting up of Internal Audit (IA), the importance of an independent IA function is often downplayed by boards and management. These are often reflected by the lack of management commitment on risk management and internal controls and erosion of the independence of the IA function that is not adequately shielded from internal politics by audit committees. What should organisations’ boards and management do to enhance the visibility and empower the IA function to contribute and add value to the organisations’ governance?