This week, Pearl Initiative, the leading Gulf business-led not-for-profit organization, recognised Bahraini University students for their understanding of integrity in business at an award ceremony for winners of its Student Case Study Competition at Ahlia University in Manama. Pearl Initiative aims at promoting a corporate culture of accountability and transparency as a key driver of competitiveness across the region today.
The competition aims to increase knowledge on corporate accountability, and engage and inspire students to understand real-life applications of ethical business. In addition, it better equips graduating students to enter the private sector by highlighting key issues in governance, risk management and compliance.
Salek Muyeen Akbar and Nawal El Tahir of Ahlia University won first place for their case study on anti-money laundering controls at National Bank of Bahrain. Alaa Matooq, Yusra Abu Odeh and Mariam Al Murbati of Bahrain Polytechnic University were awarded second place for their case study on Health and Safety Policy at ALBA. Fatima Khalifa Al Jar, Noora Ebrahim Bubshait and Kaltham Saleh Mubarak from University of Bahrain came in at third place for their assessment of code of conduct at ALBA. Lord Hastings presented awards to top three winning teams.
In his keynote speech, Lord Michael Hastings of Scarisbrick CBE, KPMG’s Global Head of Corporate Citizenship, congratulated the winners and said: “Ethics and integrity are the foundation stones of any individual or organization, and should definitely be a key component of any course at universities and colleges. If we can instill this at a very young age amongst the future generation of leaders we will see a significant positive impact on issues such as corporate governance, transparency and accountability
More than 30 student-authored case studies from three local institutions of higher studies – Ahlia University, Bahrain Polytechnic and University of Bahrain, were carefully reviewed and evaluated by an expert judging panel.
The participating teams provided insightful examples of fully implemented good practices within a Bahraini-based organisations. They specifically focused on integrity-related policies such as anti-corruption, third party due diligence, ethical labour practices and anti-money laundering. The winning case studies have already proven to be a useful starting point in understanding the internal efforts of various Bahraini companies in implementing corporate accountability and transparency measures.