Question

Maurice Stokes was one of the best classmates of Roy Russell while he studied his MBA in the USA. Maurice grew up in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. Ethiopia’s GDP per capita ranked 187 out of 191 countries due to adverse geopolitics and civil wars in the past. Maurice is talented and hard working. He went through his bachelor degree in Ethiopia and luckily won a scholarship to study an MBA in the USA. Right after he got his MBA degree, Maurice joined AB&T, the world’s biggest mobile phone service provider, as a management trainee. After 5 years’ working in the USA, Maurice was assigned to work as the Vice President in Addis Ababa, where AB&T’s African headquarter is located, to oversee all African operations.

After his MBA graduation, Roy Russell joined his father’s family business– a medium size mobile phone service provider in Hong Kong. Three years later, AB&T acquired Roy’s family business and retained all existing staff. Roy then became an employee of AB&T and he was happy to work for a multinational company with good reputation. After 3 years’ working as financial controller in AB&T’s Singapore office, Roy was offered an opportunity for promotion to work as chief financial officer (CFO) in its African headquarter in Addis Ababa. Eager to get more international exposure, Roy said yes to this offer. This is how Roy came to a reunion with Maurice.

AB&T provides its senior employees in Addis Ababa with a monthly housing allowance of up to $2,500. Compared with the US standard, most of the housing in Addis Ababa is of low quality, and in many regions the law and order are bad. By giving a generous allowance, AB&T aims to ensure that its senior employees live in areas that are safe, convenient and comfortable to ensure that senior executives can have good rest, that they live in a district that is appropriate to the company’s reputation. For housing allowance claim, senior executives need to hand in their monthly receipts for reimbursement. Every month Maurice submits a bill of $2,500 from his landlord to the finance office for re-imbursement. Roy suggested paying a visit Maurice’s house for a few times. However, every time Maurice rejected this suggestion, claiming that he had never entertained any coworkers at home so that his family members would not be distributed. Roy considered this understandable and so did not insist.

After working for six months in Addis Ababa, Roy had a business dinner with a supplier. The supplier mentioned that Maurice was a neighbor in a district called Winter Town. Winter Town is a district quite far from AT&T’s African office and is well-known for its high crime rate in Addis Ababa. Roy was surprised to hear that, as Maurice told him that he lived in Spring Town, a district that many foreign ambassadors lived and a lot more expensive than Winter Town. Through some connection, Roy verified that what the supplier said was true.

Roy decided to confront Maurice about the housing allowance issue. Maurice at first denied but later admitted that his apartment was in Winter Town and the rent was less than $2,500. He defended his action by saying that “Every AB&T senior executive gets $2,500 a month. If I live in an economically way, why should I be penalized? I just receive the same as others”. As a reply, Roy stressed that “It is AB&T objective to let senior employees to live in a safe place and have good rest for the challenging duties during office hours. Besides, the districts that the company’s senior executives live in represent the image of the company. Moreover, the company’s housing allowance policy is reimbursement on an actual basis, i.e. the amount of monthly claim should be the same as the rental value of the apartment and not to allow staff to make a profit. As the regional CFO, I have to maintain my professional standing”. When Roy challenged Maurice for using falsified rental receipts for disbursement claims, Maurice admitted but replied that this is a common and well-accepted practice in Ethiopia.

Later in the discussion, Maurice tried to convince Roy regarding his housing allowance claim practice. Maurice explained his situation that “You may not understand my situation. I have to save every dollar to pay school fees for my ten nephews and nieces. I got my family members’ great support to finish my education. I owe it to my brothers and sisters to give their children the same chance to study as I did. My parents can never understand why I live in a big apartment instead of helping their grandchildren. I am just doing what I should do. The company has no extra expense to reimburse me $2,500 housing allowance per the monthly receipt I submit. As my old classmate and my best friend, please pretend you know nothing and pay me $2,500 housing allowance as before. As a person grown up in Ethiopia, I know all business practice here and have good connection in this country. I know many senior executives in the government tax department and that will be helpful to your work here. I will fully support you to do an excellent job to save some tax for the benefit of our company. You will be compliment by your boss for paying a lower tax than other companies here”.

Roy does not want to lose his friendship with Maurice and he believes it will make his working life easier if he can make use of Maurice’s connection in Africa. Roy is not sure what should be his next step.

Required

1. Identify the ethical issue, if any, involved in this case?   

2. Who are the stakeholders in this situation? How are they affected?  

3. What are Roy’s alternatives?

4. What course of action will you suggest Roy Russell to take and justify your suggestion?

Answer 1

1) In the above case Mr Maurice who is the employee of AB&T company used to submit fake rent receipt to his employer stating that he was living in Spring town which was an expensive residence charging him $2500, wherein he was staying in a district Winter Town which was pretty far from the company and was known to have the most number of crime rates, charging him less than $2500.

2) The stakeholders in this situation are the employee (Mr Maurice) and the employer (AB&T).

3) Mr Roy’s alternatives can be one he can report it to the company authority about the situation and make his friend correct the mistake he did or else keep it as secreta as it will help him to grow with Mr Maurice connections in Africa and keep his friendship.

4) Mr Roy should report to the officials because it’s against the company rule and regulation and ethics. If he helps Mr Maurice to do unethical practice, it will motivate other employees to do the same which will lead to a lose for the employee as well as the company. Instead if such act is corrected in front of employees and make them aware of the consequences of such act, they will avoid unethical practises. An organisation is successful only if they practice right culture.  A good friend will make his friend realize that the path he is using to raise his family is wrong and help him to grow ethically.