Ethics

OECD Takes Steps to Improve Trust and Integrity Globally

Hanni Rosenbaum, Vincent Tophoff  | 

Established in 1961, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) provides a forum for collaboration and cooperation between governments to share experiences and seek solutions to common problems. The OECD works with governments to understand what drives economic, social, and environmental change. It also sets international standards for many industries.

One of the OECD’s key activities is promoting business integrity by encouraging effective implementation of international standards for business, including the OECD standards for promoting responsible business conduct, competition, and preventing bribery, as well as the Principles of Corporate Governance.

Despite the existence of these standards and guidelines, however, there remains a gap between their implementation and their intended outcomes. To close this gap, the OECD recently launched its Trust and Business (TNB) Project, which will promote discussion on the effective integration of business integrity considerations into an organization’s decision making. This underpins the responsibilities of the board and executive management as defined in the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance, and aims to help organizations improve their management for the risk of being used for or engaging in serious corporate misconduct.

Interested parties are invited to participate in the OECD TNB Survey on Business Integrity and Corporate Governance before the end of March 2015. In addition, the OECD will be conducting interviews and putting together case studies focused on the role of the board and/or executive management’s ability to effectively implement, manage, and oversee their organization’s business integrity policy and risk management measures to prevent the company from engaging in, or being used for, serious corporate misconduct (if you are interested in participating in the interviews, please let IFAC know or contact the BIAC via its website).

A public consultation on the TNB Project is also planned for the upcoming OECD Integrity Forum Session on March 25 as part of OECD Integrity Week (register via the website and indicate you wish to attend the TNB session).

Thank you in advance for your input to this project, including responding to the survey; please share the information with others who are interested in these topics and concerns.

Hanni Rosenbaum

Deputy Secretary General & COO, Business at OECD

Hanni Rosenbaum is Deputy Secretary General & COO and is responsible for the General Assembly, acts as Secretariat liaison to the Executive Board, and oversees human resources and finance/accounting. On the policy side, she leads Business at OECD activities in the areas of investment, responsible business conduct, corporate governance and anti-corruption as well as Trust in Business.

Prior to joining, she worked at the Nürburgring GmbH/Circuits International in Germany, the European Parliament in Brussels/Strasbourg, and the Brussels-based global recycling industry association, BIR. Hanni holds advanced degrees in French and English, in applied economic sciences from the Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC) in Brussels and in international relations from the Centre for Diplomatic and Strategic Studies in Paris.

Vincent Tophoff

Former Senior Technical Manager

Vincent Tophoff was a senior technical manager at IFAC, working with the Professional Accountants in Business Committee. Previously, he was a partner at INTE-Q Integration Management, a management accountancy consulting firm in The Netherlands and senior lecturer at the postgraduate accountancy program of the Vrije University in Amsterdam.