Recent business scandals prompt renewed call for corporate reforms

Published: 2003-10-03

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Church groups in the corporate responsibility movement are reacting to the recent wave of business scandals and controversies with a renewed push for reforms in corporate governance. This emphasis, which began last year in response to scandals such as those at Enron, has received further stimulus in recent months through developments such as Richard A. Grasso's resignation as chairman of the New York Stock Exchange following controversy over his $139.5 million pay package. The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, a New York-based agency that coordinates most of the church-related activity in the corporate responsibility field, gave its annual fund-raising event this year the theme of "Pushing the Envelope of Corporate Change." Oblate Father Seamus P. Finn, director of his order's Justice and Peace/Integrity of Creation Office in Washington and vice chairman of the interfaith center's board, said in an interview after the event that the center's members would be pursuing the corporate governance issue next year as they filed proxy resolutions for the annual company stockholder meetings.

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