Yesterday (Wednesday June 3) I attended a very interesting seminar organized by the Foundation Centesimus Annus. This is a Church foundation which studies questions related to different aspects of the social teaching of the Church (hence the reference to St John Paul II’s encyclical letter Centesimus Annus) and its applicability to contemporary societies.
I was struck by the parting shot of Rev Dr Marc Sultana who, among other things, teaches Business Ethics at the University of Malta. He said that when he started teaching the subject he was surprised by the reaction of students. They looked at him at if he was someone from outer space teaching about things that have very little, if anything at all, with real life on Planet Earth.
Such a statement helps one get a new perspective about the present scandal concerning defective concrete at Mater Dei. Such concrete, we are told by the Inquiry (though it should have been obvious to everyone from day one when the defective concrete was discovered) was not the result of bad workmanship. That would have been bad enough. It was the result of a cleverly thought out plan to defraud us, the taxpayers of this country.
It shows what happens when big business is bereft of ethical considerations but is all for dishonest and fraudulent profit.
Regarding this mega-scandal I have already commented in my blog of May 22. I had written that “If the inquest finds that some people deliberately delivered concrete of a lower grade then such people are thieves of the worst kind. They were paid for what they did not do and they risked human lives in the process.” I augur that our political class will stop bickering about minor details and act in unison so that these thieves are made to pay every single euro cent that they defrauded this country.
The point I want to make in this blog is a bit different.
If students look at a course of business ethics as stuff that may interest extra-terrestrials entrepreneurs but not human business men then it may mean that unethical behavior is still rampant among our business community or, at least, is perceived to be rampant. If this is the case then this state of fact or perception is worse than the Mater Dei concrete scandal as this is a mentality which spawns scandals exponentially. If this is the case we are inundated by scandals and we need the real Mater Dei to intercede for us. Besides, we have to go to all lengths to inculcate a concrete (pun intended) ethical attitude in the business community and to set up effective structures that can punish those who behave unethically.