EthicsWorld: June 3, 2008

Ethical MarketsGlobal Citizen

Ethics and Employees* Merck Chief Ethics Officer Selected as Chair of Fellows Program – Jacqueline E. Brevard, vice president and chief ethics and compliance officer of Merck & Co., Inc., will chair the Ethics Resource Center’s Fellows Program. The group draws together a number of ethics experts and has become a leading organization on emerging critical issues and promoting workplace ethics research.

Corporate Governance

* Corporate Pay at Center Stage – With the arrival of proxy season, many shareholders are assessing the issue of executive compensation at their companies. Shareholders, politicians and HR professionals are all entering the fold.

Corporate Social Responsibility

* GRI Collects Feedback from SustainabilityReport Readers – In its first ever reader feedback report, the Global Reporting Initiative found most readers find sustainability reports useful, but a large number said company reports lack an honest assessment of where they fall short.

* Environmental Groups Bring Formal Complaint Against Shell – Two local Argentine groups, Friends of the Earth and FOCO, sent a letter to government officials which cites serious environmental and social violations at Shell’s refinery in Argentina. Shell also recently released its latest 2007 Sustainability Report addressing its CSR performance.

Public Sector Governance

* Report Shows How Corporate Tax Dodging Contributes to Global Poverty – A series of country case studies from Christian Aid show big business contracts are not just deals negotiated between huge multinationals and national governments – the effects of these deals have real consequences on local populations.

* World Bank Independent Evaluation Group Offers Mixed Review – An independent audit of World Bank public sector reform projects sees success in some areas, but weaknesses exist in civil service reform and anti-corruption. A Washington Post editorial is highly critical of the Bank’s performance.

* Crticisms Continue for British Serious Fraud Office – The Guardian reported the SFO has not successfully prosecuted a corruption case since new anti-corruption laws were passed in 2001. Now that the SFO has dropped another case, NGOs The Corner House and CAAT raise concerns about new draft legislation that could allow the UK government to force the Office to drop even more.

NEWS from NGOs
Meetings – Awards – Appointments
(If you are with a not-for-profit organization and wish to inform professionals of upcoming key meetings, awards and prizes, and top level staff openings, then please contact us at Ethicsworld)