The Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) in collaboration with the Commonwealth Association for Corporate Governance (CACG), will host a seminar entitled "Effective Corporate Governance - A Certification Programme for Directors" at the Grand Lido Sans Souci between October 7-13, 2002.
This is the second certificate programme being held in the region and follows on the successful hosting of this seminar in June 2002 in Jamaica, where twenty-nine persons from within the Caribbean participated. Comments from some of the June participants included, "A must for company directors"; "Excellent course, very well conducted and all presenters displayed good mastery of their subject area"; "Tremendous impact, principles learned will be taken back to my company."
This six-day regional seminar is intended for representatives of Caribbean corporate entities at the level of director, chief executive officer, Company secretary, senior managers, attorney-at-Law, and university lecturers. The major objective of this workshop is to increase board members' awareness of corporate governance principles and how these contribute to the overall success of the organisation.
At the Closing Dinner in June, the guest speaker, Dr. Omar Davies said that there is a need for similar discussions on governance on the national scale to complement the issue of corporate governance. "What is also of importance, is that in assessing the quality of governance, as many persons as possible "graduate" from being observers and commentators to become participants in effecting the changes which are identified as being desirable and required." This recent high-profile scandals concerning dubious accounting practices, and questionable loans have made the importance of Corporate Governance principles even more important. In Jamaica, First Global Stockbrokers has recently announced their sponsorship of an award to an individual or group who have made significant progress in the implementation of corporate governance polices and programmes.
Brian Wynter executive director, Financial Services Commission (FSC), will be the guest speaker at the Closing Dinner on Saturday, October 12, 2002, to be held at the Grand Lido Sans Souci Hotel.
International presenter at this seminar will be Richard Westlake, Director Training Specialist with the CACG, a renowned expert on Corporate Governance, who has conducted courses on Corporate Governance internationally, and has also previously worked with Jamaican companies in this area. Also presenting will be Archibald Campbell, Lecturer at the Mona Institute of Business, Phillip Marshall, Chairman of the PSOJ Corporate Governance Committees. Maxine Garvey, Lecturer in Finance at the Mona Institute of Business and Debbie Fraser, Attorney-at-Law, Myers, Fletcher & Gordon, Lecturer in Securities Law and Business and Competition Law, who will make a presentation on the Duties and Responsibilities of Directors under the Proposed Companies Act.
