BKP wins ethics award for third time in a row

KUALA LUMPUR: Property developer Bukit Kiara Properties Sdn Bhd (BKP) won the highest recognition award in conjunction with the third Malaysian Business Ethics Excellence Award 2010/2011.

Held on Dec 9, the achievement makes BKP as the country's first and only property development company to win the award thrice in a row. It won the inaugural award in 2006, and subsequently in 2008.

Held once every two years by the Business Ethics Institute of Malaysia (BEIM), the Business Ethics Excellence Award recognises companies practising exemplary business ethics guided by their respective Code of Ethics.

BKP's group managing director NK Tong received the award from Minister for Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob at a presentation ceremony held at the Berjaya Times Square Hotel.

Tong said the award would inspire the property developer to continue subscribing to these ethical standards. BKP submitted a 309-page document detailing its best business practices, and won Best Company in the Large Companies Category, which is defined as having annual sales turnover of more than RM25 million.

"It was an honour to be judged as one of the country's best companies to embody and practise exemplary business ethics. It is our belief that through integrity, we can consistently offer our homeowners with innovative, quality and value-for-money lifestyle homes. That is why integrity is the bedrock of the company's core values, the others being quality, innovation and caring," he said.

"We stress the importance of conducting ourselves and doing business with integrity as the most important to embrace and we strive on to always 'Do the right thing even when no one is watching'," said Tong, who was also invited as one of the panelists in a dialogue session during the award presentation.

There were a total of 55 submissions this year, of which 32 companies are large local and multinational companies such as Maxis, DiGi, Astro, AEON (Jusco), Shell, Tenaga Nasional and Syabas under the Large Companies Category. Some 22 companies also participated in the Micro, Small and Medium Companies Categories.

The winners were selected by a panel of experts in business ethics from MARA University of Technology (UiTM), led by Dr Chris Saville from the UK based on 32 principles/criteria of assessment. The principles of assessment include the organisation's commitment to operate at all times with transparency, to ensure health, safety and welfare of all employers and to ensure that all customers are dealt with fairly, honestly and that complaints are handled expeditiously and where appropriate fair retributions be made.