9/10/22, 16:39 ¿Está su organización manteniendo sus estándares de integridad?

| EY-Global

Perspectivas Servicios Industrias Carreras Sobre nosotros

Is yoursuorganization
¿Está organización
manteniendo
upholding its integrity
sus
estándares de
standards?
integridad?

Por Arpinder Singh

Colaboradores
Sharon Rooyen,  Ramesh Musa

8 minutos de lectura
19 sep 2022

En los mercados emergentes, los estándares de integridad parecen estar

mejorando, pero en medio de la disrupción, se necesita un gobierno
corporativo sólido para evitar irregularidades.

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9/10/22, 16:39 ¿Está su organización manteniendo sus estándares de integridad? | EY-Global

Este artículo es una perspectiva de los mercados emergentes del  Informe de Integridad Global de EY .

mi Las economías de mercado en fusión se enfrentan a una serie de desafíos en su intento de

recuperarse de una pandemia mundial que aún no ha llegado a su fin. Las interrupciones en la cadena de
suministro, las tensiones geopolíticas en Asia, la crisis financiera en Sri Lanka y la guerra en Ucrania son algunas
de las crisis que pueden obligar a las organizaciones y a su gente a comportarse de manera poco ética.

Sin embargo, el Informe de Integridad Global 2022 de EY  sugiere que la integridad está mejorando en los
mercados emergentes. De los 2756 miembros de directorios, gerentes sénior, gerentes y empleados de mercados
emergentes encuestados (de 33 países y 27 sectores), el 92% dice que los estándares de integridad han mejorado o
se han mantenido estables durante los últimos 18 meses.



1 of 3

Key findings of the report

76%
97%

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Casi todos los encuestados (97%) dicen que la integridad corporativa es importante. Más de las tres cuartas partes
de los encuestados (76 %) indican que los estándares de comportamiento que los empleados esperan de la gerencia
han aumentado en los últimos años.

While this is good news, 62% admit that it’s challenging for organizations to maintain their standards of integrity
in periods of rapid change or difficult market conditions. Nearly half (46%) say that the pandemic has
made it harder to conduct business with integrity.

EY findings suggest that, although emerging market countries are on a path toward improving integrity, much
work remains to close the “say-do” integrity divide that exists between how companies present their performance
vs. tangible action. EY teams offer five ways that emerging market executives can maintain or improve integrity
standards and good corporate governance in ways that help to minimize external threats and sustain long-term
value.

Download the full report: Is your PDF (5 MB)

organization upholding its integrity

standards?

1. Mind the regulatory compliance gap

Thirty-six percent of emerging market respondents indicate that they have had sanctions applied to address
behaviors that fail to uphold integrity (a slight increase from 32% in 2020), while 45% say that they conduct
regular training on relevant legal, regulatory or professional requirements, up from 39% in 2020. Further, nearly
one-third (31%) say that they have incentives in place to encourage behaviors that demonstrate integrity.

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9/10/22, 16:39 ¿Está su organización manteniendo sus estándares de integridad? | EY-Global

Maintaining integrity standards

Question: Which, if any, of the following does your organization have in place?

2022 2020

Base: Global Integrity Report 2022 (2,756) and Global Integrity Report 2020
(1,730)

Yet, according to the findings, 38% of emerging markets respondents report that regulators have taken action
against their organization for breaching integrity standards or regulations. “Often, governments in emerging
markets foster a business and investment-friendly environment. Aggressive enforcement action would be seen as
counterproductive to attracting sought-after investments for economic growth and benefits,” says Ramesh Moosa,
EY ASEAN and Singapore Forensic & Integrity Services Leader. Therefore, the number of times regulators could
have taken action could be higher in reality.

Action on integrity
Question: For each of the following, please indicate whether it
applies to your organization?
2022 2020

My organization has taken action against employees for breaching integrity standards o
69%
73%

I have seen behavior by other 37%

employees that would damage our reputation if it was kno
43%

38%
Regulators have taken action against my organization for breaching integrity standards
47%

41%
Our integrity standards have been discussed
47% externally by the public, traditional media

Base: Global Integrity Report 2022 (2,756) and Global Integrity Report 2020 (1,730)

Key Actions:

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Organizations should implement strong corporate governance throughout and consider integrity
as more than a compliance box-ticking or risk management exercise. C-suite executives need to
implement strong corporate governance throughout the organization that fosters real protection
against regulatory enforcement actions, its assets and its reputation, all of which can drive long-
term, sustainable value.
Shift the focus from prescriptive training to education around the importance of integrity at both
the corporate and personal levels. Employees will perform better if they understand why and how

How EY can help

Integrity and Compliance

As regulatory enforcement and public intolerance of corporate misconduct increase,
EY professionals help you strengthen your integrity and compliance frameworks. And…

Read more

the business does things, instead of being expected to just follow the rules and codes of conduct
without a second thought. This approach makes integrity more than a matter of legal necessity. It
becomes a moral imperative.

2. Create a people-centric culture of integrity

It's important to recognize that systems and processes don’t commit fraud – humans do. Although our survey
highlights that integrity standards are improving, an increasing number of employees are willing to compromise
their ethical standards. Forty percent of board members agree that unethical behavior in their organization is often
tolerated when the people involved are senior or high performers.

Roughly half of both board members (52%) and senior managers (47%) surveyed agree that there are managers
within their organization who would sacrifice integrity for short-term financial gain. Thirteen percent of board
members admit that they would offer or accept a bribe, and 14% of board members admit that they would falsify
financial records.

Compromising ethical standards

40%
of board members agree that unethical behavior in their organization is often tolerated when the people involved
are senior or high performers.

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The best governance and compliance frameworks can be rendered ineffective if the underlying culture is not one of
doing the right thing. This makes building a strong integrity culture just as important as the governance policies
and the control environment that underpins it. The need for a strong integrity culture and accountability has been
further elevated as work from home policies have come into play as a result of the pandemic.

“Creating a culture of integrity, where ethical behavior is supported and rewarded, and people are empowered to
do what is right, offers a number of benefits. It can help reduce regulatory risk, improve employee morale and
build stakeholder confidence in a company’s ability to deliver on its promises,” states Arpinder Singh, EY Global
Markets and India Forensic & Integrity Leader.

Key actions:  

Establish consistent, tone-from-the-top leadership around integrity. This includes everyone at the board
and promoter levels, down through the C-suite. Employees need to see that integrity cascades from the
highest levels down through the grassroots of the organization.
Hire people who will support an integrity culture and empower them to live the organization’s values
within their own framework of beliefs, supported through training and education around ethics, and
through tools to help them make the right decisions.
Develop key performance indicators that measure integrity and tie performance to remuneration,
promotion and succession.

“Creating a culture of integrity, where ethical behavior is

supported and rewarded, and people are empowered to do
what is right, offers a number of benefits.
”
Arpinder Singh
EY Global Markets and India Leader, Forensic & Integrity Services

3. Encourage a speak-up culture

Overall, emerging market respondents believe that the whistleblowing environment has improved over the last
three years: 39% say that it has become easier for employees to report their concerns, while 30% indicate that
whistleblowers are now offered more protections. Meanwhile, 41% of emerging market respondents say that they
have reported issues.

On the flip side, 36% of emerging market respondents in our survey admit that they have had concerns that they
have chosen not to report. The biggest reason cited is that respondents don’t feel their concerns will be heard.
Nearly one-third (31%) admit they don’t report wrongdoing because they fear for their safety.

Percentage of respondents who don’t report

Emerging market wrongdoing because they fear for their personal

safety

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Kenya
50%

Nigeria
48%

South Africa 41%

India 41%

“There is an increasing trend in Africa that whistleblowers are reluctant to blow the whistle due to their fear of
retaliation, as well as limited or no protection if they do,” says Sharon Van Rooyen, EY Africa Forensic & Integrity
Services Leader. “Recently, the plight of the whistleblowers has been in the spotlight as they have put their
livelihoods and often their lives at risk. What we have noted is that there is an increased need for enhanced
legislation to ensure that whistleblowers are protected.”

Key actions:

Provide employees with the opportunity to report wrongdoing in good faith and protection so that they can
feel safe doing it.
Build and enhance a whistleblowing program as part of a broader governance framework. This is especially
true in relation to remote or hybrid working.
Celebrate integrity in the same way as other metrics or milestones. By bringing integrity to the forefront of
business priorities, companies can differentiate themselves from their competitors as good corporate
citizens and good employers.

4. Protect the data, protect the company

Overall, 27% of emerging market respondents rank cyber attacks and ransomware as the third highest risk to the
long-term success of their organization. This concern is unsurprising, and perhaps should rank higher, given that,
over the last 12 months, one in five (19%) emerging market survey respondents admits that their organization had
a major cybersecurity breach.

Percentage of respondents who admit that

Emerging market their organization has had a major

cybersecurity breach in the past 18 months

India
43%

United Arab Emirates 43%

Peru 40%

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Thailand 36%

These findings come despite the fact that 88% of emerging market respondents say that they are confident that
their organization is doing everything it needs to protect the organization from data security breaches, while 86%
express confidence in their actions in protecting the privacy of customer data.

Confidence in data security measures

88%
of emerging market respondents say that they are confident that their organization is doing everything it needs
to protect the organization from data security breaches.

With so much of the world talking about privacy, there’s an opportunity for emerging market companies to do
more.

Key actions:

Develop and implement a sound cybersecurity and data integrity program that builds trust among
stakeholders and can help them comply with competing data privacy and cybersecurity requirements
across different jurisdictions.
Put the right technology tools and training in place to detect and respond to cyber attacks.
Create a culture that makes cybersecurity everyone’s responsibility.

5. Avoid greenwashing the environmental, social and governance

(ESG) story

Although ESG reporting is only inching its way onto board agendas in emerging markets, more than one
in 10 respondents (12%) see it as a top risk to the long-term survival of their company. One-third (33%) of
emerging market respondents say that their company has a policy on either corporate social responsibility
(CSR) or ESG. However, our survey shows a gap between what companies say that they have in the way of
an ESG policy and how they demonstrate accountability.

Greenwashing is increasingly ineffective in convincing employees, customers and society of an

organization’s true ESG performance. “As more Middle East companies see their integrity standards
discussed externally by the public, investors and stakeholders, and as social and governance aspects gain
attention, companies that fail to adhere to high standards of ethics and integrity in these areas, as well as
the environment, will score poorly across all elements of ESG,” says Nader Rahimi, EY MENA Forensic &
Integrity Services Leader.

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Managing risks
Question: Which, if any, of the following do you think pose the greatest risk to the long-
term success of your organization?

Fraud, bribery and

corruption

Pandemics

Cyber and ransomware

attack

Base: Global Integrity Report 2022. Board members (282), Senior Management (828)

Key actions:

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Develop an operational framework that incorporates ESG as a vertical, as well as an integral, part of each
function.
Harness the power of your data to measure your integrity culture.
Build processes and controls that can turn ESG programs into long-term value creators.

It’s time to close the integrity “say-do” divide

In our experience with clients, we’ve seen a shift among organizations to refocus their integrity strategies on being
proactive rather than reactive. Many organizations have increased their integrity awareness training and fraud risk
assessments, which has been key to understanding and managing corporate integrity risk. There’s also been greater
emphasis on conducting more proactive due diligence of third parties.

However, now is not the time to be complacent. As consumers, regulators and investors turn up the heat on
transparency, emerging market leaders need to keep “walking the talk” on corporate integrity to close the “say-do”
integrity divide.

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Bax

Summary
The findings of the EY Global Integrity Report 2022 suggest that, in emerging markets, integrity is improving.
However, close to half also admit that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has made it harder to act with

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9/10/22, 16:39 ¿Está su organización manteniendo sus estándares de integridad? | EY-Global

integrity. Furthermore, as long as economic, geopolitical and employment issues continue, so will the appetite for
wrongdoing. Organizations in emerging markets must strengthen corporate governance and establish an integrity
culture to combat misconduct and safeguard long-term value.

About this article

Arpinder Singh Related topics

EY Global Markets and India Leader, Assurance Forensics

Forensic & Integrity Services

Leading forensic accountant and

veteran expert witness. Advising
global clients on compliance, anti-
corruption and corporate governance. Upvote 14
Disruptive thinker. Technology
aficionado. Author.

Contributors
Sharon Rooyen, 
Ramesh Moosa

EY | Assurance | Consulting | Strategy and Transactions | Tax

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