The Best Corporate Citizens Awards (BCC) organized by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) that was held consecutively for the last six years appears to be a persuasion on the part of the CCC to put the corporate entities into perfection or excellence in business.
Through BCC, 10 Best Corporate Citizens will be selected.
This year’s BCC would be held on November 3 and the CCC held a seminar, this week to enlighten the prospective contenders on the criteria and how to provide information accurately in making the application. In view of the global and local developments the Awards this year will give more attention to sustainability of business while encouraging to promote CSR, focusing on three particular dimensions such as people, profit and planet and to be conscious of the future generations.
Susantha Ratnayake, Vice Chairman, CCC and Prof Lakshman Watawala, Chairman – BCC Award Committee introduced the BCC Awards 2010. Dr Saman Kelegama, Executive Director, Institute of Policy Studies shared the past experiences of BCC.
The areas reviewed under each of the stakeholder groups are: Environment, Employee Relations, Customer and Supplier Relations, Community Relations and CSR and Governance and Economic Contribution.
Each area was explained at the seminar as follows: Environment –Dr Ananda Mallawathanhri, Assistant Resident Representive UNDP; Employee Relations – Ravi Peiris, Director General, Employers’ Federation of Ceylon; Customer and Supplier Relations – Dr Uditha Liyanage, Director, Postgraduate Institute of Management; Community Relations and CSR – Ms Gayathri Gunaruwan, and Governance and Economic Contribution – Ajith Ratnayake, Director General, Sri Lanka Accounting and Auditing Standards Monitoring Board.
Mr Ratnayake elaborating on the area of Governance and Economic Contribution said that bribery and corruption has evolved to be a major menace in the country and is widespread. He said that there should be a giver in bribery and thus in the private sector there must be a system in the organization to ensure that their employees are discouraged in bribery and corruption as bribery is offered to get something done.
He said that in evaluating the applications they are looking at the policy documents to assess that people are made aware of what policies they introduce in the eradication of bribery and corruption and said that they would carry more points and also requested the contenders to attach their financial statements and as well as the audit reports which are important in terms of governance.
In the case of Economic Contributions he said that exports and value-additions to the products that would contribute to the economy of the country in balance of payment are also assessed.
He said that North and East could be considered in the area of economic contributions as there are land and labour freely available in those regions and they can be put into use by the private sector. These resources are under-utilized in these regions and they could be put to better use for the benefit of the nation.
Mr Ratnayake said that they are also looking at enterprises that are moving out of Colombo and Gampaha areas where companies add new dimensions in sustainability.
Dr Kelegama dwelling upon the past experiences of BCC said that the event is of substance to promote sustainable practices to ensure the long term survival of not only the corporate entities but also their multitude of stakeholders and the planet. |
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