It is difficult to escape speculations on the upcoming parliamentary elections here in Lebanon. But conversations are not limited to public governance outcomes of the elections and corruption – the seeming resistance of the Lebanese financial sector to the crisis that is spreading around the world is loudly touted as a success story here. One of the reasons that the banking sector has been able to avoid failures is its commitment to sound decision-making, known otherwise as corporate governance.
The Lebanese Transparency Association (LTA), the Lebanese chapter of Transparency International, has done a significant amount of work promoting corporate governance in Lebanon, starting with translating and distributing TI’s Business Principles for Countering Bribery – a set of internal compliance mechanisms – several years ago. Today, LTA made another important step forward in furthering Lebanese companies’ compliance with good governance standards by launching two new tools for family-owned enterprises (FOEs) and listed companies (available online next week on the Lebanese Corporate Governance Task Force website) .
At the launch event for these new tools, the Lebanese Minister of Finance, H.E. Dr. Mohammad Chatah, talked about the importance of corporate governance and access to information as tools to encourage a culture of transparency and constructive public-private dialogue. This launch event was organized by LTA, CIPE, and the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative, in collaboration with the IFC, the National Network for the Right of Access to Information, and the Lebanese Corporate Governance Task Force.
LTA’s new corporate governance reference guidebook for FOEs builds on the corporate governance code for family-owned enterprises (FOEs) and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) developed by LTA in partnership with CIPE in 2006. This practical “how to” guide includes recommendations for the implementation of corporate governance principles; various toolkits on how to draft corporate governance components, such as family constitutions, succession, whistle-blowing procedures, and forming audit committees; and two case studies of Lebanese FOEs.
The over-arching theme of the many remarks was the importance of access to information – more precisely the role of corporate governance in ensuring that proper information is used to make sound decisions in both the private and public sectors. In light of this, perhaps, corporate governance can be used as a tool and a platform to re-build trust and promote constructive interaction between business, governments, and society in Lebanon, as well as throughout the region.
Published Date: May 26, 2009