This is a GOOD IDEA - Forum provides ethics training to businesses to fight corruption [1]
Published: Wednesday, December 01, 2010, 10:00 PM - Peter Krouse, The Plain Dealer [2]
Joshua Gunter/ The Plain DealerSteve Dettlebach, U.S. attorney for the northern district of Ohio.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- When federal prosecutors began to work with the Greater Cleveland Partnership on ways to encourage ethical business practices in the wake of local corruption scandals, they heard a stunning story.
During a trip abroad to recruit business, partnership representatives were told by a Dutch company that Cleveland wasn't a place they were interested in coming to because they believed it to be corrupt.
U.S. Attorney Steve Dettelbach, whose office has been prosecuting the Cuyahoga County corruption probe, shared that bit of information with a gathering of local business people interested in joining the Northeast Ohio Business Ethics Coalition.
Dettelbach took the initiative to create the coalition in cooperation with the Greater Cleveland Partnership, the Ohio Ethics Commission and the Cleveland Clinic.
The Clinic played host to the coalition's first training seminar held Wednesday at its InterContinental Hotel & Conference Center.
Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove was on hand to welcome the participants. He said ethics and integrity are critical to an organization, but that they "do not arrive on stone tablets." Rather they are developed over time, he said, which is why the seminar was so important.
More than 120 companies, primarily ones that do business with the Clinic, registered for the training seminar. It's expected that most will join the coalition by signing its membership pledge, said Michael Tobin, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office.
About two dozen businesses signed the pledge prior to the seminar, Tobin said.
Read complete story at - Forum provides ethics training to businesses to fight corruption [1]
