Ethics and Values in the Cattle Industry
Wednesday, August 18, 2010 at 9:39AM This article from the New York Times was brought to our attention by a friend of The Soderquist Center who works in the cattle industry. He says, "This is a great example of how good people who possess good intentions can get off track because of the bad combination of temptation and a poorly defined ethics and values system. It is quite discouraging that an industry that frequently demonstrates a respectable values system can get so far away from its values."
In addition to the breakdown in values – there are a few additional points here:
• This was the first time the audit was done by an outside firm, not the board.
• It was the first time the results were available to the public.
• Review indicating division within the association with funds favoring one side.
• Association president essentially saying, “But we’ve always done it that way…”
Audit Finds Problems in Cattlemen’s Spending
(New York Times) An influential cattle industry group misused money raised from ranchers and farmers for promoting beef sales and violated federal rules by spending some of it to support lobbying activities, according to an outside financial review.
Accountants examined a sampling of the financial records of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the largest recipient of beef industry marketing money under a federally sanctioned program. This year, the association is expected to receive $51 million of the $77 million collected under the program, mainly from ranchers, for marketing purposes.
The spot review found, over a two-and-a-half year period ending in February, tens of thousands of dollars of expenditures that were either improperly charged to the marketing fund or lacked adequate documentation. The results were deemed serious enough that a second, more comprehensive review of the association has been ordered.
Reader Comments (2)
This is a fairly astounding example to me - not only because it being against the mission and values of the organization but the inability to realize the inherent ethical breakdowns the audit revealed, systematically and culturally.
Organizations can't afford to be their own worst enemy in this area.
$1/head is quite a trust from the ranchers of America. Mr. Roberts should take this seriously.