Senior and middle managers at Zambia Daily Mail Limited (ZDML) have been challenged to embrace risk management to protect the revenue, assets, information, organisation reputation and the future of the company.
Acting ZDML Managing Director, Emeldah Musonda said that if all managers and staff at the company which runs the Zambia Daily Mail and the Times of Zambia newspapers got risk management right, the company would reduce losses, improve efficiency, strengthen accountability, enhance public confidence and create a stronger foundation for sustainable growth.
Ms Musonda said this when she officially opened a two-day risk management workshop for senior and middle management in Lusaka yesterday.
“Zambia Daily Mail Limited operates in an increasingly competitive and rapidly changing media environment, we are therefore exposed to a wide range of risks. These include financial, operational, editorial, technological, regulatory, reputational and human-resource risks.
“But today, I want us to pay particular attention to one area that has a direct impact on the sustainability of our organisation — the loss, misuse and leakage of funds and resources. Every kwacha that is lost unnecessarily is a kwacha that could have been used to improve our operations, invest in technology, support our employees, strengthen our products or grow the business,” she said.
Ms Musonda said that risk management was not a compliance exercise but a management responsibility and a business imperative, noting that financial losses did not always result from deliberate fraud.
“They (financial losses) can also arise from weak processes, inadequate supervision, poor documentation, failure to reconcile accounts, weak procurement controls, duplication, wastage, negligence and failure to follow established procedures,” she said.
She said the managers of the organisation should, therefore, consider whether the systems in place were strong enough to protect the resources entrusted to them.
