The Vice-president and the Country Manager of Kosmos Energy Ghana, Mr Ken Keag (4th right) in a group photograph with some stakeholders in Takoradi.
The Vice-president and Country Manager of Kosmos Energy Ghana, Mr Ken Keag, has pledged the company?s commitment to ethical business practices and ensure transparency and accountability to all stakeholders.
He said the company was also committed to full implementation of local content policies, which will ensure that many Ghanaians benefit from the new oil and gas industry in the country through best business practices.
Six core business principles which spell out Kosmos Energy?s responsibility to its stakeholders ? ethical conduct, work environment, commitment to the environment, society and commercial relationship with stakeholders to ensure more transparency as well as accountability to the people ? have been adopted from an extensive consultation process.
Speaking at the launch of the business principles in Takoradi, Mr Keag said the launch reflects the company?s commitment to do the right thing across all spectrums of its business activities.
?The Business Principles articulate our view of how a responsible oil and gas operator should seek to interact with the environment and host societies, and build on our strong existing systems in areas such as health and safety and anti-corruption,? he said.
Mr Keag said as the company?s business grows, so do its responsibilities, as well as expectations from the stakeholders.
?Therefore, these business principles directly support our objective to be as good above the ground as we are below, by defining our commitments to stakeholders, ethical conduct, our workplaces, the environment, social issues and commercial relationships. The principles provide a clear set of standards that we can hold ourselves to, and against which we can be accountable,? Mr Keag said.
He added that it was important to note that the principles build on its strong existing policies in relation to health, safety, environmental and security issues as well as anti-corruption controls.
?The business principle was to strengthen the commitment to due diligence in assessing risks, especially human rights, and to avoiding, mitigating or managing any such risks and to providing access to remedies; and put greater emphasis on monitoring and review and lessons learned from the application of the Principles.
He said, while Kosmos was proud of the principles, the company was also committed to continuous learning and improvement and that the move was to strengthen references to core labour standards and making standards for contractors more demanding.
The new principle, he said, was also to incorporate references to ?human dignity? in the company?s principles and new human rights policy. It also incorporates a stronger focus for Kosmos social investment and broader socio-economic strategy on building human capacity and creating economic opportunities.
Giving the background, Mr Keag said in November 2012, Kosmos Energy Ghana held a special workshop and engaged with multiple stakeholders on the principles, policies and corporate social responsibility programme of the company.
The workshops, he said outlined the profile of Kosmos Energy and challenges experienced by it in its operations in Africa and Latin America. Stakeholders were consequently invited to openly discuss the tenets of Kosmos Energy?s policies and corporate social responsibility strategy which resulted in the final document.
He said the six principles drew from leading international benchmarks such as the UN Guiding Principles on Security and Human Rights, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights.
?I can assure you that these principles will serve as the guiding framework for how we run our business and how we interact with our host governments, suppliers and business partners and you have to hold us to it,? he said.
Picture & Story: Moses Dotsey Aklorbortu, Takoradi
