Anti-Bribery & Anti-Corruption Policy
Introduction
At Umicore there is a global commitment to integrity for everything we do. We believe that success depends upon a relation of trust and professionalism with our stakeholders; namely, our employees, commercial partners, shareholders, government authorities and the general public. Wherever we operate, our reputation is a valuable asset, and it is determined by how we act.
The Umicore Way is the cornerstone of everything we do at Umicore and highlights our values and commitment to high standards of business and personal ethics and to seeking business partners whose policies and practices regarding ethical, social and environmental issues are consistent with our own.
Any business relationship is based on trust. Our Code of Conduct is fundamental to creating and maintaining this relation of trust. Its main purpose is to ensure that all persons acting on behalf of Umicore perform their activities ethically and in accordance with laws, regulations and the standards Umicore sets through its policies, guidelines and rules.
The Umicore Way and the Umicore Code of Conduct set clear standards and expectations for ethical behavior of employees and business partners.
The purpose of this document is to transpose these by describing how Umicore manages the prevention, detection, control and reporting with regards to bribery & corruption. It serves as a reference point to ensure that all individuals associated with the organization understand their ethical responsibilities and comply with anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws and regulations.
Objective
The objective of this policy is to frame and address the (in)direct risks linked to commercial transactions, to provide clear guidance to employees, contractors, suppliers, and other stakeholders regarding what constitutes acceptable behavior, to foster and maintain a culture of ethics and integrity. It aims to actively prevent bribery and corruption through implementing preventative measures, such as due diligence procedures for third-party relationships, training programs, and reporting mechanisms. By doing so, it helps reduce the likelihood of corrupt activities taking place.
Scope
This policy applies to all Umicore employees worldwide, including temporary personnel, to any other person or entity acting on Umicore’s behalf (“Umicore Representatives”) and to business partners.
General principles
Umicore upholds high standards of business and personal ethics.
Corruption can take many forms1, but all involve the abuse of public or private office for personal gain. A corrupt official may exercise his or her authority in a way they should not (for example, where a purchasing manager grants a contract to a supplier that has paid a bribe) or fail to exercise authority in the way they should (for example, where a building inspector ignores the use of sub-standard building that should be reported). Other parties to corruption may act for a variety of personal or business reasons.
Bribery is a type of corruption. It involves intentionally offering, promising or giving any undue pecuniary or other advantage to an official or decision maker, with the intention that the official or decision maker acts or refrains from acting in relation to the performance of their duties.
All employees, Umicore representatives and professional relationships are expected to refrain any involvement in bribery and corruption, and to comply with all applicable laws and regulations when conducting business on behalf of Umicore. This is also applicable when obtaining or maintaining (international) certifications and contractual agreements.
Umicore employees or representatives are not permitted to accept monetary or other favors from business partners that may affect or appear to affect their integrity or independence.
Umicore does not engage in corruption and never pays bribes, regardless of local custom or practice. The offer, payment, authorization, solicitation and acceptance of bribes and other improper advantages is unacceptable.
Identifying risks
Umicore strives to have a positive impact. A number of (in)direct corruption and bribery risks exist in the context of commercial transactions, including sourcing of unethical material, child labor, human rights infringement, bribery, corruption, money laundering, VAT schemes, conflicts of interest, fraud. While criminal prosecution, financial loss and damaged reputation are important potential consequences of the failure to manage those risks, it is also important to note that corruption and bribery can cause death, injury, and financial loss to innocent parties, e.g., wrong/deviant chemical composition or derogation in specifications of construction work.
Managing risks
To manage these risks, Umicore applies a prevent, detect, control approach.
Prevention
Following measures support the prevention of bribery and corruption:
- This policy has top level commitment, as described in the “responsibilities” section. This is foundational for creating a culture of integrity that rejects bribery and corruption.
- A clear set of policies and guidelines that is communicated to employees and stakeholders. Procedures that embed anti-bribery and anti-corruption measures in day-to-day activities are in place to help ensure that the policies are put into practice. The guidance covers gifts, hospitality, promotional expenditure and political contributions. It explicitly prohibits or discourages use of facilitation payments (see further) and prohibits illegal contributions to candidates for public office or to political parties or to other political organizations, and guides on documenting due diligence processes.
- Risk assessments to identify and profile high-risk countries and sectors, as well as those areas of business operations that are most susceptible to risk; depending on the outcome, measures are taken to mitigate the risk, e.g., conduct due diligence on business partners to review their business integrity and level of bribery risk.
- Regular mandatory training and promoting awareness (including scenarios and case studies) for all employees and managers to increase and support their knowledge and skills needed to prevent, detect and address bribery and corruption.
- Prohibited use of small facilitation payments where they are illegal, and strongly discouraged use where they are not, mandating that when such payments are made, they are accurately recorded in books and financial records.
Detection & reporting
Any (suspicion of a) bribery or corruption incident or a situation that could lead to bribery or corruption, must be reported. There are a number of reporting channels available, depending on whether or not the reporting party has access to the Umicore premises and/or network.
- With a physical/logical access: any employee or business partner is responsible to report any bribery and corruption incident via an internal incident reporting channel.
- Without a physical/logical access: Umicore’s whistleblowing channel, called the “Integrity Line”, is accessible 24 hours/day via internet to everyone. Employees and external parties can report anonymously, in confidence and without fear of retaliation concerns or complaints about Umicore's business approach via the Integrity Line. Concerns with regard to possible irregularities in financial, ethical or behavioral matters that infringe our Code of Conduct, are reportable via this channel.
- Umicore employees can also report any concerns or complaints to their direct supervisor or contact the local or regional People and Organization director, the head of the group’s Legal Department or the Corporate Internal Audit Department.
All reported incidents are investigated by Corporate Security. They are consolidated in the security incident reporting to the Security Committee and, where appropriate, to Internal Audit and/or Code of Conduct Committee.
Control, reaction & monitoring
Every incident regarding bribery and corruption must be investigated. Depending on the outcome of an investigation, mitigation measures are put in place.
Equally important is to develop and adopt adequate internal controls and measures to monitor the prevention and detection of bribery and corruption. These are based on a risk assessment and are embedded in the existing controls (e.g., MICR) and measures which guarantee they are included in a “Plan-Do-Check-Act” cycle.
Responsibilities
The Management Board commits itself and mandates all Umicore employees to consider anti-bribery and anti-corruption requirements in their daily operations, participate in security awareness campaigns or specific trainings and comply with the relevant policies and guidelines of Umicore.
Management is responsible for embedding Umicore’s commitment to anti-bribery and anti-corruption into the Umicore culture and for requiring business partners to comply with the objectives of this policy.
Local site/plant management is responsible for the implementation of Umicore’s commitment in line with applicable local and regional laws and regulations.
Each employee is expected to act in line with the policy.
Corporate Security is mandated to identify and monitor the risks and to follow up all potential or proven cases emerged of money laundering, bribery, corruption, terrorist financing or fraud. It performs audits and controls in line with the Corporate Security Governance Policy and organizes training and awareness campaigns.
Transparency
To enhance the transparency of Umicore’s activities against bribery and corruption towards the public, Umicore communicates its awareness of, and engagement against, bribery and corruption. This is done by making public commitments, and disclosing the management systems and the internal controls, ethics and compliance programs or measures adopted in order to communicate these commitments.
For more information, reach out to security@umicore.com
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1 Corruption can be found in many different forms, including cronyism, nepotism, patronage, bribery, embezzlement and extortion.