Inculcating business ethics

Mahatma Gandhi once said, "Commerce without ethics is a deadly sin."  Probably, he knew his people very well. It is a rarity to find adulterated and stale food stuff being sold in countries beyond the subcontinent.  Once I entered a small confectionery and bakery shop in Tokyo to buy some food. A teenage girl was there to attend the customers. As she did not speak English, I showed her the food stuff (some sort of cake). At the time of delivery, an elderly lady entered and stopped the delivery. She spoke in Japanese and tested the food with a mechanical device. Thereafter, it was handed over to me. No comment is required about this kind of responsibility, because this has originated from the inherent consciousness of business ethics.
The Transparency Inter-national Bangladesh (TIB) reports about the corruption strategies in different organisations, both private and public, from time to time. The term "strategies" has been used here from a specific viewpoint. Corruption is rife in every sphere of our life. No one needs to be a whistleblower for informing the people about it. Corruption is galore and it is very much visible. But what the TIB does is that it mentions the specific points, processes and modus operandi of corruption. However, we are alarmed at the latest report of the TIB about corruption in the Directorate General of Drug Administra-tion (DGDA). Graft involving several billions of taka in the DGDA is not the only matter of concern. Almost all government departments are involved in corruption and a section of their staff is earning a lot of illegal money.
The TIB report said, the institutional capacity of the DGDA was not adequate in consideration of the scope, geographic coverage and expansion of the drug market. There were institutional limitations in the areas of human resources and logistics. The present legal structure was not strong enough for monitoring and controlling the drug market. This observation also applies to some other organisations like Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI), directorate of shops and establishment etc. Since the liberation of the country, there has not been any attempt to improve governance in these organisations that are supposed to look after the interest of the people. Instead, all successive governments were interested in creating more ministries and divisions, but unfortunately with no visible accountability to the citizens.
Creating the post of a secretary serves no worthwhile purpose to improve administrative functions, but the unheard post of 'senior secretary' has been created. The next step might be the creation of posts for 'super senior' secretaries. Four million people work in the garment sector and the sector is the highest foreign exchange earner. Yet, all government agencies responsible for safety, security and welfare of the workers in the sector are in a state of inaction as they suffer severely from human, institutional and logistical limitations. Pressure from foreign buyers and international rights groups compelled the government to bring some changes. Still, a lot needs to be done.
The TIB report further said corruption was somewhat institutionalised at almost every point of service delivery of the DGDA through collective and collusive practices, in which small pharmaceutical companies were ahead of the rest. Influence of large pharmaceutical companies aided corruption through their inclusion in different committees, it added. There is an apparent contradiction in these comments with the blame more on the small companies, but the subsequent comment about the big companies nullifies the view. All companies, small or big, belong to a single pharmaceutical association. So, all are to share the glory or blame equally. There is no scope to single out small companies only and hold them responsible. The most shocking part of the report is "some companies use raw materials of higher standard for export and raw materials of lower standard for the local market, exposing the people in the country to health hazards."
TIB Chairperson Advocate Sultana Kamal has rightly said, "Treatment is the basic right of a human being.  Although our lifespan has increased, the areas of dependence on medicine have also increased. But we have to consume contaminated drugs in the same manner as  we buy adulterated food from the market every day". She further commented, "Responsibility is a precondition for good governance, which is absent in the DGDA. Pharmaceutical companies do not bother about ethics and rules to gain more profit."
The DGDA is not a stray example. The country as a whole is lacking in good governance. Adulteration of food stuff is a serious crime. If the government comes up with a heavy hand, people from all walks of life will cooperate with the government for punishing those resorting to the heinous mischief. But the government approach has been lacklustre and at times even apathetic. There is more rhetoric than action. The TIB chairperson has raised the question of ethics. Citizens' voice should be raised in the form of an organised movement. Non-government organisations (NGOs) should be focussed on the issue, with the same priority they attach to socio-economic issues of their interest. If the people are physically and mentally crippled due to the twin monstrosity of food adulteration and contaminated medicine, then what purpose will socio-economic programmes serve?  
The sense of ethics cannot be inculcated through government circulars.  Business people themselves have to practise it. They have their own organisations such as chambers of commerce and trade associations. They can start blowing whistles from their own platform. A good number of highly-educated, new-generation entrepreneurs have entered the pharmaceutical sector. We expect a broad and global outlook from them. We believe they will be able to get the people rid of the heinous crimes.
  rezaulparvaz@live.com