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Ethics

BUSINESS ETHICS AND PROFESSIONALISM

JUSTICE S N KAPOOR*

The Ailment and Need Of Panacea

Corporate America reeled under a Spate of Scams

The Enron scandal has already spawned countless scandals, jokes and gags. One of them relates to period after Enron scandal and before Saddam’s debacle in IRAQ.

Colin Powell walks into George W. Bush’s office and says,

“Mr. President, I have some good news and some bad news.” “What’s the good news?” asks Dubya.

“Saddam has decided to allow UN inspectors to come in and check his research facilities for nuclear bombs.”

“That’s great.” Says the President. “What’s the bad news?” Replies Powell: “He is insisting on inspectors from Arthur Andersen.

To see some slightly more bizarre humour, check out the number of offers on E-bay, the auction site, by ex-Enron employees. They run into several pages, including this priceless gem: ‘A mint condition edition of the Enron code of ethics, described as “unopened, untouched, just like the ones owned by most Enron executives.” This collector’s item- mint condition edition - had been snapped up by eager buyers for around $46 (considerably more than the price of Enron stock).
It is not a laughing matter. The biggest bankruptcy in the American history has destroyed the life of thousands of employees holding worthless Enron stock given as part of their wages and their pension plans. The Enron scam of 2001 was followed by several large U.S. companies like the World Com scam, Global Scam, Cruising scam, Xerox scam and the collapse of the Audit firm Anderson, are too familiar too be ignored.

INDIAN CORPORATES- Scams since 1992

The Indian editions of Enron scandal are several but we have no dearth of Benami Partnerships, front companies and siphoning away of hard earned money of poor investors. Forget the hundreds of companies that collect money from gullible investors and then disappear, even some of the more reputed names in our corporate...