Value Of Integrity Is Priceless - Says Celo Participant

By Hanuratha Thamilselvan KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 23 (Bernama) -- A participant of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Academy's Certified Integrity Officer (Celo) programme described the value of integrity with adherence to moral and ethical principles as priceless. “The outcome of the training was awesome,” said Telekom Malaysia Group (TM) special investigation manager Thanaraj Ganesan to Bernama in an exclusive interview after the pioneer training session here on Thursday. Thanaraj emphasised that integrity was crucial in dealing with the challenges of the workplace. The session created an awareness on the negative impact of giving and receiving bribes for the group of government and private sector officers who attended it, he explained. It is hard work to train staff and educators themselves must first practice integrity at the workplace so as to set an example, said Thanaraj. “We need to go the extra mile to improve ourselves. It is pointless for top management to point fingers at the staff' mistakes. “We have to educate them. We need to share whatever we learned in the Celo training today with them,” he added. He remarked that TM constantly conducted training programmes, workshops and investigations to ensure staff integrity levels were high. “Crime can occur from any angle. As an integrity investigator my role is to find the root cause of the problem," he explained. According to Thanaraj, white-collar crime is always hidden and financially motivated and they are non-violent crimes committed for illegal monetary gains. Thanaraj was of the opinion that rather than punishing offenders for integrity issues the matter should be handled through proper guidance like Celo. He added that changes would not happen overnight but believed that such efforts would bear fruit in the near future. The Celo programme aims to train government and private sector officers to combat corruption, misappropriation of funds and abuse of power. -- BERNAMA