Accra, Nov 25, GNA – Mr Atta Yeboah Gyan, Deputy Managing Director for Operations and Support Functions at Fidelity Bank, has urged business leaders to operate with ethics and integrity.
Speaking at the 3rd Ghana Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) National Fraud Conference, he said ethics should be “a moral obligation”, and “a critical economic survival strategy” for Ghanaian institutions.
The conference was on the theme: “The Role of Corporate Executives in Promoting Ethical Leadership and Accountability in Ghana”.
Mr Gyan maintained that trust should be “the new currency of leadership”, as public confidence was increasingly becoming “fragile.”
He added that the fight against fraud must move beyond “compliance checklists to a culture of lived integrity”.
The bank executive argued that advances in digitisation and regulatory frameworks was commendable but remained insufficient without the “human element” of steadfast leadership.
“Corporate executives are the custodians of ethical culture within their organisations. We set the ‘tone at the top,’ and that tone determines whether integrity becomes a lived value or a mere slogan,” he noted.
“When leaders compromise ethics for short-term gain, they send a signal that values are negotiable.
“And once values become negotiable, integrity becomes optional and that is when fraud thrives,” he stated.
Mr Gyan urged corporate executives to set good examples in the fight against fraud, emphasising that decisions should be based on “principle rather than convenience.”
He noted that fraud and corruption drained resources, distorted fair competition and weakened the institutional fabric necessary for attracting investments.
“When leaders compromise principles, organisations lose credibility, employees lose motivation, investors lose confidence, and customers lose trust. Rebuilding that trust can take years, sometimes decades,” he stated.
The Deputy Managing Director defined ethical practices as “a strategic differentiator” which enhances brand loyalty and helps institutions to navigate complex regulatory landscapes.
Mr Gyan tasked businesses to build governance structures that made “wrongdoing difficult and transparency natural”, saying it was iimportant for protecting whistleblowers and “active rewarding” of integrity.
“Technology and regulation alone cannot win the fight against unethical conduct. That victory belongs to people; leaders who choose integrity over convenience every single day,” he stated.
“Business leaders should leave a legacy not of excuses, but of ethics, building a Ghana where doing the right thing is not the exception, but the expectation,” he emphasised.
GNA
Edited by Beatrice Asamani Savage