Our reputation for honesty is priceless
Last year, I heard a disturbing story from a building site. Long story short, an Auckland Council building inspector was on the site of a new home build on Auckland’s North Shore. The developer was a new New Zealander and the entire build team comprised immigrant labour.
The building inspector, having completed his inspection of the steel and concrete foundations, left the site and moved on to his next job. But 20 minutes later he realised that he had left his ipad at the previous site.
He quickly returned to collect it only to discover the steel foundations being lifted out before the concrete truck arrived. The idea being that the same steel could be used in the next set of foundations, in advance of the next inspection, and so on.
There’s been a lot of talk about our Kiwi values during the last week. I’ve heard words and phrases like kindness, a sense of humour, religious freedom and gender equality. I’ve even heard suggestions that the ability to name the All Blacks, drink beer and make a pavlova should be included in the makeup of our critical values set.
But we possess a value at least as important as some of those above, and we take it for granted.
This particular value ranks high in respect of the way the great majority of New Zealanders conduct their lives, and we rank high internationally for it. And yet, it is something we’re not. We are not particularly corrupt. We are a low-corruption country.
In fact, global anti-corruption coalition Transparency International ranks NZ number one out of 180 countries as the least corrupt country. That’s something we should be incredibly proud of. It’s also something that we should strive to maintain.
But maintaining such a standard is a challenge, particularly when we are seeking to ‘‘import’’ workers to support our growing economy. As we bring in people from other countries, we also risk importing the cultures and behaviours that are common in those countries.
Corruption is variously described as being guilty of dishonest practices, or lacking integrity, or taking bribes. Transparency International defines corruption as ‘‘the abuse of entrusted power for private gain’’. The scale of corruption will depend on the size of the fraud, the seniority of those involved and how ingrained it becomes.
Corruption comes in many forms. On one hand, it may be a simple tourist swindle which sees a visitor tricked into buying a fake souvenir for four times its real value. At the other extreme, corruption might feature a politician exchanging massive favours in return for even more massive financial benefits.
Corruption is rife in many economies, so much so that many people within those countries accept it as simply ‘‘the way things are done’’. At its worst, corruption ruins entire countries. Think Zimbabwe, or more recently Venezuela.
The world continues to globalise and New Zealand’s challenge is to maintain a set of values that don’t condone or support corruption. As we continue to bring immigrants into New Zealand, we need to acknowledge that some of those people are used to a way of life where corruption is rife. Somehow, we need to teach them that such practices are not acceptable here.
The great majority of New Zealanders are honest people. Sure, we have a few rat-bags, but who doesn’t.
But when it comes to the values that we should seek in the people who move to our country, I would rank being ‘‘corruptionfree’’ at the top of that list.
At its worst, corruption ruins entire countries. Think Zimbabwe, or more recently Venezuela.
Being the least corrupt gives us a standing in the economic world that we should wear proudly. It means our trading partners can trust us. It means we will deliver what we promise. It means there is no unnecessary middle man accepting bribes or artificially pumping up prices or profits. And it means that all people will be treated fairly.
If we can maintain a society that is as close as possible to being corruption-free, then that in turn will continue to provide the very sound foundation that supports the broader values representative of being a New Zealander. Things like freedom, equality, fairness and fun.
Let’s go back to that building site. If we can’t stamp out that type of behaviour, it might just lead to our next leaky building saga. Except this time they won’t leak, they’ll fall over.
And so will we.
Bruce Cotterill is a five time CEO and current company chairman and director. He is a globally recognised keynote speaker and author of The Best Leaders Don’t Shout.