I wonder how long we will remember this time. Three years or four? As the eighties turned into the nineties there were many collapses. Bond was jailed, Skase was on the run, two State banks had collapsed and Victoria was generally a basket case. Let’s face it, Canberra had to bail out Victoria.

I’m old enough to have corporate memories of that era seared into my psyche. As a youngster of 20, I went to a huge corporate party on October 17, 1987, the so-called Black Tuesday when stock markets collapsed. The next day I was still around Australia Square as crowds gathered in Bond Street to watch the Australian market collapse on the then Sydney Stock Exchange.

As I watched, I felt quite uneasy about the future – even as one so young. Later some guy landed in Australia Square after having jumped from somewhere above level 40. Years later I used to show people where it happened. It took them a long time to properly get the blood out of the paving. I didn’t see the actual jump happen but I saw the consequences and didn’t forget it. I finished my studies, including a subject on ethics, with this day in mind – the stock market collapse and one person’s final act.

There were even movies about the era and Gordon Gekko’s famous quote, “Greed is Good”, become infamous.

In the early 1990s I was in the USA and seconded to the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC). The RTC had a mission of bailing out troubled savings and loans institutions. It was a debacle that cost the US government billions. Ordinary people were horrified at the excesses and the consequences.

I was also horrified. Sitting in a midwestern suburb trawling through records with angry customers picketing was something I didn’t forget. The customers got their money back because the US government (who I was in effect working for) made sure of it. The taxpayers were screwed. Uncle Sam paid for every penny while the criminals got away with so much. I counted the losses for Uncle Sam. What a debacle, and a dreadful way to run a country.

Later that year I worked in the city hall of a major metropolitan area sifting through WIC (Women, Infants, Children) grants. There were so many conditions the city had to fill to extract this money from the federal government. It was a contrast to the savings and loans situation where the money flowed quickly. Some people had louder voices than others.

When I got back to Australia, the large accounting firms had enormous law suits against them. The figures were staggering. I was seconded to a litigation support project in Sydney. The firm I worked for was being sued over a collapse of a merchant bank, one of many cases they had against them.

I wasn’t involved in the original audit, but was asked to try and piece it all together. It was a farce. There was nothing to piece together. There were too many records missing and I strongly believe I had been sent on a fools errand. I couldn’t find anything to help, only things that would hurt our case.

A bit later, a colleague was on the audit of a developer. It was clear it would collapse. They had prepared workpapers documenting their concern about the client’s ability to continue as a going concern. When an audit report is signed it is implicit that the company will continue to be a going concern for a year. You can’t have workpapers on file that don’t support that view. The workpapers were later changed to support the clean audit opinion. Criminal, in my view.

After all these sort of things happened it was said we needed to focus on risks. Aaaah, yeah, right whatever. We were doing that in the past anyway, but no one wanted to know. No one that mattered.

For me the fact that we went through all of this in the late 80s and early 90s is enough. Shouldn’t this sort of level of scandal be only something you see once in a generation, or once in a career?

I’ve now seen it twice, and I don’t want to see it a third time. Scandals 12 years ago and scandals again now.

The people responsible were not really dealt with the first time around and they are not being dealt with this time. When I say dealt with, I mean imprisoned. I do not mean send the patsy to prison, send the real ones there. I am not one to go for elaborate conspiracy theories but there is definitely something rotten at the big end of town that needs to be rooted out once and for all.

Twice is enough in one career. I’m now afraid for the entire system and I don’t know what can replace it.

I agree with you Margo on your ethics suggestions (see Ethics overboard: How to promote integrity in the moment of choice at webdiary14Jan). We need more external involvement. Good players have absolutely nothing to fear. Ethical organisations should jump all over your suggestions. They can set themselves apart.

We also need watchdogs with teeth and people with missionary zeal to lead them. Alan Fels remains a bit of a hero of mine. Time magazine named three women as people of the year for 2002 – the whistle blowers of Enron, Worldcom and the FBI. The woman at the FBI highlighted the fact that the flight school concern was well known but not acted on. The Enron and Worldcom women tried to right wrongs and finally went external. People who tell are dobbers. In our culture this is even worse than elsewhere. You have to be one of the boys and any hint of disloyalty will be punished severely.

I haven’t been a dobber. What does that make me? Top marks for culture but a failure on ethics?

We need to re-examine our culture. People who tell are not always disloyal. It is possible they are the most loyal of all. I am absolutely sure of that. They are the people who believe the PR and the mission statements. They really believe it, only to find out later that it means nothing.

We need more people who will tell and we need people who will listen, because unless we have both the whole thing will happen again, probably around 2010.

Of course if we had a working system informants wouldn’t be so essential, but since we have lax regulation and poor corporate governance we have to design back-up systems.

The theme of the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week is “Building Trust”. The foundations of the entire system are at stake and unless trust can be built (the real and sustaining way), I fear for the future. The lack of trust must be not only recognised, but addressed. The Davos thing is a talkfest, but what if it became a reality? What if we really found ways to build lasting trust?

Now that would be exciting and new. It has to be actions though, government has to act swiftly and meaningfully. Don’t just leave it to a few companies who are smart enough to see the competitive advantage in ethics – ram it home to the recalcitrants.

And for those who don’t want to play, send them to jail. If we show zero tolerance for mugging or speeding, let’s also show zero tolerance for crimes that ruin thousands of lives. Corporate corruption is criminal, and we need to root it out.

PS: The opposition needs to get off their fat, lazy arses and campaign like crazy on these issues. Why is it all off to the side only of interest to some – this should be bringing the government down. Maybe that is taking it too far, but I am FED UP with this crap!!! People need to be thrown in jail and governments need to be tossed out or answerable in some way. I want to know where the sense of outrage is. It seems strangely muted on all sides, almost like it is expected or accepted. It shouldn’t be this way!! Is this also about money?