AmCham Best Practices in Anti-Corruption for Businesses

On February 17, 2023, AmCham Philippines hosted the "Best Practices in Anti-Corruption for Businesses". The featured speakers were Mike J. Masoud, Sr. Diector of ACCI in the Middle East and Africa, and Gina Chammas, Sr. Advisor of the AACI in MENA.

AACI or The American Anti-Corruption Institute is the only institute that targets executive management and those charged with governance of any organization to equip its decision makers with the required knowledge and skills, enabling them to play a proactive role in preventing fraud and corruption. AACI achieves this objective through two premier certification programs — first, the Certified Anti-Corruption Manager (CACM) management credential. Second, the Certified Anti-Corruption Entity (CACE), an effective institutional change tool as a Corruption Prevention Management Test (CPMT) represents its core. The CPMT is an online test that is available only to an organization seeking an anti-corruption certification. The primary objective of the CPMT is to quantify an entity’s exposure to fraud and corruption.

Mike J. Masoud is a senior instructor and researcher for the AACI in the fields of internal control, governance, and corruption prevention methodologies.

Mr. Masoud is the co-founder and managing director of BZ Consulting International, an advisory and training firm specializing in internal control, anti-fraud and corruption, corruption risk management, and fraud and corruption examination. He has more than 25 years of experience in the fields of the corruption investigation, auditing, and anti-corruption advisory.

On the other hand, Gina J. Chammas is a Lebanese American expert in the anti-corruption field, and is a Certified Anti-Corruption Manager (CACM). She was the first Lebanese woman to sit for the CPA exam in California and was the first woman elected President of LACPA (2011-2012).?Since then, she remains the elected President of the Mutual Fund of members of LACPA.?She served as a member of the Committee on Retirement Fund.?She is newly appointed as the President of LACPA – IFAC Relations and Technical Committee by LACPA.?

She progressed as an internal control designer and developed her financial investigation and litigation support skills into an expertise since her early years and has been serving in courts as an expert witness or as a sworn expert.?She established a development consulting firm named Tomorrow’s Advice s.a.r.l. (1996), followed by an international consulting firm, Tomorrow’s Advice Global s.a.l (Offshore Lebanon -2007).?Her Audit practice “ISA Lebanon” recently became a member of the International Network McMillan Woods Global.

Mr. Masoud shared that “corruption is corruption” and there are 10 Principles of Fighting It:

1. The pervasiveness of the rule of law. Government and citizens are bound to, and abide by, the law. It should be applied equally regardless of culture and value system.
2. There should be an Effective Internal Control.
3. Effective and good governance. This is the system by which companies are directed and controlled.
4. Independent and effective judiciary. This includes the 3 branches of government: legislature, executive and the judiciary. A competent, independent, and impartial judiciary is essential to the protection of human rights, the courts to uphold the constitution, the rule of law and public confidence in the judicial system, and the moral authority and integrity of the judiciary.
5. Power and accountability.
6. Investment in corruption prevention.
7. Quantification of corruption exposure.
8. Certainty of punishment.
9. No statute of limitations.
10. Rewarding corruption fighters.

What we or companies can do is to invest in what we can control. Adopt and apply the Ten Principles of Fighting Corruption. Do not engage in corruption. Have the courage to expose corruption and fight it intelligently. Our decision to fight corruption always matters.?

Mr. Masoud ended their presentation saying, “You fight corruption or you die.” A very bold statement that challenges each one of us in the audience on our stand about corruption. Either we just go with it and be blind or stand for what we know is right and fight for it.

I think here in our country, corruption exists in all levels of the government, public, or even private sectors. This is one of the larger problems Filipinos have been facing for decades and I am just hoping that a miracle will one day come and wash away all these problems, as this has greatly hampered the government’s ability to provide basic services to its citizens.