A framework for managing and assessing ethics in Namibia : an internal audit perspective

Abstract

The Namibian Governance Code was implemented in 2014 and calls for organisations to manage ethics effectively. Although this Code, as well as legislature, requires ethical behaviour in the workplace, limited research in the Namibian context exists. Firstly, this study proposes an ethics framework that can be used by management to build an ethical culture and also assist internal auditors to assess the effectiveness of an organisation’s ethical culture. Secondly, data was collected from managers and senior internal auditors in the financial services industry in Namibia to determine their views of the proposed ethics framework. Management agreed that there is a lack of guidance on ethics management and that such a framework could contribute to building an ethical organisational culture. Internal auditors agreed that the framework could assist the Internal Audit Function (IAF) in assessing ethics. However, it appears that the formal assessment of ethics in Namibia is limited to an assessment of the codes of conduct only. Furthermore, there appears to be a lack of reporting on ethics performance to stakeholders, primarily because participants’ organisations have not implemented integrated reporting practices.