By Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye, Member of the Malaysia Integrity Institute
KOTA KINABALU: Ethics and integrity are vital for good Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) practices at all workplaces.
I have often been asked in what way unethical and corrupt practices can affect safety and health at work.
What is the impact of corruption on the safety of the workplace and that of the public?
Ethics, honesty, and morals are key elements of the concept of integrity. In the workplace, those who act with integrity will always tell the truth, be accountable, transparent, and reliable, and treat co-workers, stakeholders, and customers with respect.
Civil servants, employees of government-linked companies (GLCs), and those from the corporate sector should always uphold integrity and avoid corrupt practices.
Integrity must be instilled in them when they join an organisation so that, over time, it will become part of their identity. If someone acts with integrity, he or she will do the right thing even when no one is watching.
According to the Business Ethics Institute of Malaysia (BEIM), fraud elimination is an important aspect of sustainable safety management, especially in managing OSH, accidents, or near misses at the workplace.
The following are some examples of fraudulent practices that could impact safety outcomes in one way or another:
i) Purchase of low-quality or substandard PPE or tools or equipment, increasing the risk of injury to the employees.
ii) Inaccurate records, resulting in the wrong assessment of a hazardous situation or characteristics of a product or the wrong appropriation of much-needed support to fix a risky environment.
iii) Taking short cuts and circumventing SOPs, resulting in unsafe practices and unsafe acts.
iv) abuse of power, resulting in the exploitation of weaker beings to work in dangerous, dirty, and demanding work environments to achieve personal goals.
v) conflict of interest, rewarding contracts to less competent vendors, creating safety hazards, and exposing employees to handling a hazardous environment without adequate protections.
It cannot be denied that only honesty, integrity, and morals can help to address the above-mentioned problems and prevent corrupt practices.
We should not tolerate corruption and allow it to become a culture in our society, especially among OSH practitioners.
In the fight against corruption, the elements of integrity, governance processes, morals, and ethical behaviour should be integrated into the existing safety training syllabus.
All OSH practitioners must embrace integrity and loathe corruption.
They need to uphold ethical and moral values so that when they are at the workplace, they will realise the importance of not getting involved in corruption.
While efforts by the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to fight corruption are welcomed, it is very obvious that the fight should include all workplaces.
Corruption in Malaysia is at a worrying level, and action needs to be intensified to address this menace in our society.
Corruption in whatever form must never be tolerated, as it impoverishes the country, causes hardship to the people, and causes the causes the economy to decline. If it involves OSH practitioners and agencies, it may result in accidents that could cause injury or death.
We cannot be unconcerned and complacent about corruption because it attacks not only the economic and social fabric of society but also the moral foundations of order.
Efforts should be continuously made to instill integrity and ethical values because people of high integrity are not likely to commit corrupt practices in any circumstances.
It should be the aim of all OSH practitioners to drive OSH excellence with integrity for the future.
