Ethics & compliance

Ethics is the foundation of every human society. It guides our choices and behaviour as we navigate through life, and it is through ethical and professional behaviour that we build and maintain our reputation.

As prominent investor and philanthropist investor Warren Buffett famously said “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

In Deloitte Southeast Asia, our reputation is important. Our reputation is built on trust, respect and integrity – values that we have cultivated and safeguarded for many years. We must uphold and protect our organisation’s reputation so as to sustain public trust and maintain stakeholder confidence.

We believe that ethics directly affects our reputation. The SEA Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct is our guide and compass to ensure that we behave ethically and lawfully whenever we come across situations that run against our ethics and principles. It establishes a uniform set of behaviours among Deloitte partners and professionals around the world and provides guidelines to help us apply our best judgement and make the right choices and decisions, for the right reasons, in the course of work.

It is our commitment to serve our clients with distinction and it is crucial that we continue to do what is right even if it is difficult and unpopular – and especially when no one is watching. Our words and actions demonstrate leadership and our strength of character, so please remember that we must conduct ourselves honestly and at the highest possible ethical standards in all that we say and do.

It is an expectation that after reading the SEA Code, you will have a greater appreciation of how you should conduct yourself as a professional of our firm. If you have any questions or are unsure of what to do, seek guidance from your country Conduct Leaders or the SEA Conduct Leader.

Let us continue to build on our long history of ethics and integrity that has earned us the trust and confidence of our people, our clients, the communities that we live in, and all our other stakeholders.

At Deloitte, nothing is more important than our reputation. To safeguard our reputation, we have a commitment to conduct our business with integrity – this means that we want to be honest, serve with distinctive quality and conduct ourselves with the highest standards of professional behavior.

Deloitte’s Shared Values and Global Principles of Business Conduct outline the commitments we all make as Deloitte professionals and as an organisation in order to build and sustain public trust. We must serve clients with distinction while inspiring our talented professionals and contributing positively to the society.

Additionally, we must, on a daily basis, be extra attentive and aware of ethical issues, the expectations of the public and the important role we play in doing the right thing and doing it right.

In Southeast Asia, the Deloitte Global Code is supplemented by Deloitte Southeast Asia's Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct (the “SEA Code”). The SEA Code outlines the expectations of behaviour and conduct that we place on ourselves and each other in our daily work. It also provides detailed information, guidance and resources which we all can use to help us make the right, ethical professional choices. Ethical issues may arise at any level during your course of work; therefore, it is important that all Deloitte personnel understand and comply with the SEA Code.

We also have an Ethics Program that is designed to motivate and sustain ethical behaviour across the organisation by providing support to help prevent, detect and address ethics and compliance issues that may occur in the course of our work. It can also assist us if we have any questions or requests for assistance regarding an ethical dilemma. While the SEA Code lays the foundation for doing the right thing, the success of the Ethics Program ultimately rests with all of us. Together, let us continue to uphold our culture of integrity and embed a conduct mindset that empowers our people to make the right choices and decisions, for the right reasons, at all times.