Mauritius: Workshop focuses on rigorous standards of Corporate Governance

Companies must demonstrate a strong commitment to the development and enforcement of rigorous standards of corporate governance so as to maintain public confidence. These standards must encompass the relationship between a company’s board of directors, its management and its shareholders. Corporate leaders are required to be faithful to shareholders interests and act with both competence and integrity. 

This statement was made by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Financial Services, Good Governance and Institutional Reforms, Mr Jugdish Dev Phokeer, at the opening of a workshop on Corporate Governance held yesterday in Ebène.

Mr Phokeer pointed out that Government has demonstrated its commitment to fighting fraud and corruption and to introducing good governance best practices by creating a Ministry dedicated to good governance.

“Corporate governance has become the sine qua non for any business which cares about its reputation”, he said.

Government has recently passed the Good Governance and Integrity Reporting Bill the objects of which are to promote a culture of good governance and integrity reporting in both the private and public sectors, to disclose malpractices and recover unexplained wealth.

The workshop’s focus is on Corporate Governance and good governance and is borrowed from the Cadbury Report in 1992. UK Corporate governance is the system by which companies are directed and controlled. Some 175 participants from different departments and organisations attended the workshop.

It served as a platform to provide an understanding of the nature of corporate governance and the vital role that leaders of organisations have to play in establishing effective and good governance practices. For most organisations, those leaders are the board directors who decide the long-term strategy of the company in order to serve the best interests of the owners, members, shareholders and, more broadly, stakeholders, such as customers, suppliers, providers of long-term finance, the public the financial community and regulators.