3.3.2.1.4 Group Ethics and Compliance Policy (PECG)
In 2016, the Executive Committee adopted the Group Ethics and Compliance Policy (PECG), which comprises the Company’s compliance programmes as well as the main rules that Executive Directors should know, observe and enforce within their entities, which are strictly aligned with the risks of these entities. The PECG was updated and approved by the Executive Committee in January 2020 and now includes thirteen compliance programmes:
- preventing the risk of corruption and influence peddling;
- preventing conflicts of interest;
- fight against fraud;
- compliance with international sanctions programmes;
- prevention of harassment and discrimination;
- prevention of market abuse;
- prevention of the risk of money laundering and financing of terrorism;
- compliance with the EMIR regulation;
- compliance with the REMIT regulation;
- preventing breaches of competition law;
- personal data protection;
- export control (dual-use goods);
- the duty of care (covering environmental, human rights and health and safety issues).
3.3.2.2 Anti-corruption and other compliance programmes
3.3.2.2.1 Anti-corruption programme
In accordance with the French law of 9 December 2016 on transparency, the fight against corruption and the modernisation of the economy, known as the “Sapin II” Law, EDF set up an anti-corruption compliance programme taking account of legal requirements:
- an ethics & compliance code of conduct included with the internal rules of procedure and a disciplinary mechanism. This code of conduct defines and illustrates, through practical cases, the different types of behaviour employees are likely to face as a result of the Company’s business activities and organisation, and which should be prohibited given that they may constitute acts of corruption or influence peddling. It sets rules for all the themes identified during the risk mapping process. It prohibits facilitating payments, and restricts gifts and invitations. Breach of any of its rules may result in disciplinary sanctions.It can be viewed by third parties on EDF’s site in French and English (1). An updated version of the code of conduct is scheduled to be released early 2021, integrating two new issues (lobbying and sponsorship), in line with the Group corruption risks mapping;
- a whistleblowing system (described below);
- risk mapping: Ethics & compliance risk mapping is part of the Group RiskDepartment’s annual internal control self-assessment process. Based on this, the entities draw up action plans appropriate to their operational contexts to prevent and mitigate these risks. Since 2018, a specific “corruption” risk map was prepared, which identifies and prioritises, by business sector and country, risks of exposure to corruption. In 2020, the methodology used for the mapping was improved, to enhance its focus on the operational specificities of the Group’s various business lines and geographical locations;
- third-party integrity control system Under the Group Ethics and CompliancePolicy, executives of the relevant Group entities are required to implement a system within their entities to control the integrity of any partners with which theGroup plans to establish or continue a business relationship, mainly designed to check that there are no risks of exposure to international sanctions and that a clause is inserted in each contract entitling EDF or its subsidiary to terminate a business relationship with immediate effect in the event of a failure to adhere to an international sanctions programme;
- accounting controls: control procedures, containing specific requirements for the detection and prevention of corruption, have been defined for the Company’s various processes. Following a technical analysis, any anomalies likely to be characterised as fraud are, where applicable, forwarded to the entity’s Ethics andCompliance Officer;
- training schemes: The Group Ethics and Compliance Department develops prevention measures and training for all employees of EDF and its subsidiaries(excluding regulated subsidiaries), including:
- a dedicated community on the Group intranet providing a range of training materials,
- the implementation of e-learning training modules, in particular an interactive training course on the code of conduct, in French and in English, to allow employees to improve and test their knowledge, to which two new modules will be added in 2021, lobbying and sponsorship, in line with the new version of the code of conduct,
- specific face-to-face training: standard training for members of the ethics and compliance network, subsidiary directors and contract managers and two new training courses for employees tasked to assess third parties and process wrongdoing reports,
- the Group Legal Affairs Department also provides a “Preventing corruption” e-learning module, for staff to learn about how best to behave in situations relating to business relations, conflicts of interest and gifts. In 2020, theGroup Ethics and Compliance Department and the Legal Department updated the e-learning module to include influence peddling,
- at the end of 2020, it became mandatory for all employees starting a position exposed to corruption risks to follow an anti-corruption e-learning module (e-learning module added to the standard training given to managers, project managers, buyers and contract managers, etc.),
- the percentage of Group executives who have received training on the prevention of corruption and influence peddling has been specifically monitored since 2019. The methodology associated with this indicator was modified for 2020, which led to a mathematical reduction in the percentage of executives compared to 2019. The indicator stood at 62.5% on 31 December 2020 with a target of 100% of executives to be trained by 31 December 2021.
Proportion of executives who have completed the anti-corruption training programme
2018 : 57
2019 : 61,8
2020 : 62,5
Target 2021 : 100
Key non-financial performance indicator
The methodology for this indicator is set out in detail in section 3.7.2.2 "Details on performance indicators".
Calculation methodology revised in 2020 to include only executives currently serving.
- internal control and evaluation system: To ensure the appropriateness and effectiveness of measures to prevent and detect misconduct, a system allowing entities to evaluate the level of implementation and meeting of each key requirement has been put in place. It enables identification of improvement actions to be taken;