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2009 Directorship Nomination – ANZ Bank’s Values and Corrupt Culture 

The adventure continues…….

 

“ There is considerable evidence that the most successful companies are those where corporate values are consistent with the personal values of employees.” Susie Babani – ANZ Group Managing Director, Human Resources – ANZ  Corporate Responsibility Interim Report 2009

 

“ Our challenge and our opportunity is to ensure the values underpin everything we do, at every level of the organisation. All employees, and our stakeholders, should also feel compelled to speak up if the values are not being reflected in how we do business,” Mike Smith – ANZ CEO  – ANZ  Corporate Responsibility Interim Report 2009.

 

Senior Executives and maybe the ANZ Bank’s Board are finally catching on.

 

For those that have accessed this website – and it is difficult for some as ANZ Employees have had the site blocked – as far back as my 2007 ANZ Bank Directorship nomination I raised concerned about ANZ’s Reputation and Values.

 

In 2008 the Opes Prime debacle surfaced and ANZ went into protection and recovery mode.  Mike Smith was even “somewhat pissed off”.   Well I believe the ANZ Board are still playing catch up when it comes to Values and overcoming what I have termed since 2007 a Corrupt Culture.

 

ANZ, with disappointingly the support of the ASA, still continue with the spin that “There appear to be conflicting accounts of what occurred” [ASA Website - ANZ AGM 2009 Voting Intentions].

 

To suggest that there are “conflicting accounts” is nonsense. The simple facts are;

1.     In 2007 the ANZ paid an out of court settlement plus legal costs based on “commercial grounds”.  This appears to imply ANZ were in the wrong.

2.     Senior Executives were proven to be dishonest and or deceitful – these are the facts based on documents well known to the ANZ Board and others. I thought these attributes were against ANZ Values – but apparently I was wrong.

3.     The ANZ Bank did nothing to act upon significant concerns raised from 2002 to 2005 regarding dishonesty and which are fully documented.

4.     The ANZ Whistleblower process was ineffectual such that ANZ state in their 2005, 2006 and 2007 Corporate Responsibility Reports that no formal whistleblower investigations were undertaken.  ANZ now do not even bother to report whistleblower activity or more correctly non-activity.

5.     In response to my agitation ANZ Bank in 2008 introduced a revised Code of Conduct and Ethics supported by mandatory training for all staff.

6.     ANZ are now recognizing Values and that “all employees, and stakeholders should also feel compelled to speak up if the values are not being reflected in how we do business” [Babani].  Mind you nothing is said about shooting the messenger and the nature of retribution that awaits those that do.

 

This website contains extracts of information naming people who I believe have acted dishonestly supported by documents in my possession.  I have been threatened with defamation on a number of occasions by the ANZ Bank but it would appear that the truth persists in the evidence as presented.

 

Once again to the people who have contacted me privately with ideas, issues and support I thank you for your contribution.

 

Robert Reeves

December 2009

 

Last year read……..

2008 Directorship Opportunity – ANZ’s Corrupt Culture My resolve to attain an ANZ Directorship continues on the back of demonstrable poor performance by the ANZ Board during 2008. Immediately after the 2007 AGM the Chairman Charles Goode undertook to hand over to the ANZ’s internal Audit Committee a file of documents that proved serial dishonesty by an ANZ Executive. The file was originally designed for the ANZ External Auditors and provided evidence of significant dishonesty and breaches of the ANZ Code of Conduct.

It transpired that the Chairman did not pass on the file as he undertook to do. I then sent a copy of the file to the External Auditor, Michelle Hinchliffe of KPMG, who in turn then passed it to the ANZ’s Audit Committee. Despite repeated requests to Mr Meiklejohn the Chair of the ANZ Audit Committee, I never received an acknowledgement of them receiving the file.

For an understanding of what this file contained please read my letter and challenge to the ANZ Chairman Mr Goode dated 13th January 2008 [See 08c-goode-dishonest-donald-letter-13-jan-08] for a taste of executive dishonesty. The Chairman never responded.

On 27th February 2008 Mr Bob Santamaria wrote to me on the subject - Conclusion of Investigations -indicating the effort the ANZ had undertaken in investigating my alleagations of ANZ having a Corrupt Culture. Mr Santamaria indicated “we are firmly of the view that there are no systemic problems of this nature.”  See

Why are these background points important? The action or lack of action by Charles Goode the ANZ Chairman, the lack of the basic courtesy of the Chair of the ANZ Audit Committee, Mr Meiklejohn, with respect to receiving damning evidence about an ANZ Executive, the fact that the serial dishonesty of the Executive was known about for many years by ANZ Group Executives, and was a trigger that forced me to take legal action, highlights the tolerance of poor governance practices by ANZ at all levels.

The remedial action by ANZ to the Opes Prime and the related Securities Lending debacle highlighted the need for reform in the ANZ. The lack of utilization of the ANZ Whistleblower Protection Policy serves to highlight the fear of retribution among staff of the ANZ to raise concerns of dishonesty, fraud and poor management practices occurring within.

In September 2008 ANZ has introduced a New Code of Conduct for all employees to be trained in and for annual refreshment – Wow - a major move for an organisation that has “no systemic problems of this nature”. !! See http://www.anz.com/documents/au/policies/code_of_conduct.pdf

It is an eight point Code with the second item “act with honest and integrity”. The ANZ has only recently announced that all employees are required to undertake training in the new code along with an ongoing annual declaration cornfirming they understand and are familiar with the Code’s principles. It was obvious that ANZ employees were not doing that before and the Corrupt Culture was endemic.

The Opes Prime and Securities Lending debacle http://www.anz.com/australia/support/library/mr/mr20080822.pdfserves to highlight the Corrupt Culture of the ANZ. May I also offer an insight into the fallout from the Opes Prime fiasco? Whilst ANZ’s CEO Mike Smith may be “somewhat pissed off” others have been severely impacted.  I was to write a paper on the experiences of those caught up in the Opes Prime fiasco however given the widespread press coverage of individual investors who lost everything, along with the draconian flow-on processes imposed by the liquidator of Opes Prime, ANZ’s complicity is clear for all to see. 

I wish to thank all those people who have offered support, ideas and proxies.  I also offer my support to those who undoubtedly have been hurt by the lack of proper application Values by the ANZ and hope in some small way this website will give you a forum.

For details of the ANZ’s lack of Values and details of the dishonesty displayed by ANZ Executives go to the Topics and Articles Tab at the right of this page,

2007 Directorship Approach - Detailed below is the background to why I stood for at the 2007 ANZ AGM for a Director position.

Site Overview - This site is designed to provide a forum for exploring issues surrounding the application of corporate “Values”. The site content primarily arises from my experiences at the ANZ Bank. I would welcome your review of the Topics and Articles and any feedback you may have including examples of similar experiences within or beyond the ANZ Bank using the Values Forum.

Values - In 2005 I commenced a successful legal action against the ANZ Bank which included allegations of misleading and deceptive conduct, defamation and breach of contract. The Amended Statement of Claim for the Federal Court reference VID 339/05 Reeves v Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited provides the full extent of my claim. To give a specific insight into how a major corporate may work with respect to knowingly breaching its Values and then “apologising” I offer the Draft Letter of Apology from ANZ’s then Group General Counsel & Company Secretary Tim L’Estrange. The Apology when read closely is nonsense. Further examples are provided across various levels of ANZ management to allow you to judge just how profound ANZ’s wrong doings were and may still be. My experiences have led me to coin the term ANZ’s Corrupt Culture. As you will gather I am keen for ANZ to reform their culture so events such as mine do not recur and to that end I have nominated myself as a Director Candidate for the 2007 AGM.

Whistleblower - Key to commencing my legal action against ANZ was the assistance of a Whistleblower Statement. The statement allowed significant leverage to be brought to bear on the ANZ to seriously address my legal action as it clearly showed where ANZ management transgressed a number of core Values. This site provides an analysis, including a remarkable statement on whistleblowing by John McFarlane, the then CEO of the ANZ.

Inaction and Lies - Despite having the Whistleblower Statement for 18 months and despite giving me a letter dated 8 November 2005 from ANZ’s Group General Counsel & Company Secretary Tim L’Estrange stating “ANZ takes these allegations seriously and are in the process of investigating them further”, in May 2006 ANZ admitted they had done “nothing” with the Whistleblower Statement. This admission clearly highlighted that ANZ had not commenced an investigation and were dishonest when L’Estrange stated in November 2005 they were presently investigating the allegations.

Settlement - Details of the Settlement I received and monetary costs are provided so you can understand the full extent of the monetary impacts in taking such action.

The Way Forward - Via the Values Forum I am seeking input from all who have been wronged by organisations such as ANZ. This site is designed to allow input of your own experiences. To add weight to my resolve to have ANZ address its Values shortcomings I am seeking a Directorship position at the 18 December 2007 AGM to further support my Corrupt Culture reform agenda. Any assistance you are able to provide would be welcomed.

ANZ - Overall I strongly support the ANZ and its people. I have remained a Shareholder and a Customer. However the systemic management failures I endured should never be repeated and if this site assists just one person in overcoming their workplace concerns I will have achieved my objective.

What’s New - This site is intended to expand as more information becomes available and or to expand upon information initially outlined. To facilitate easy access to additions and modification to the site I will provide a link with a date ordered brief summary under the What’s New Tab.

Yours sincerely Robert Reeves