What are the IT companies in the fight against corruption?
Internal control, a network of compliance officers, ethics alert system ... A study of Vigeo details the anti-corruption strategies of European companies. SAP and Steria figure are good students.
In exchange for a sum of money, a promise, an advantage or just a business gift, every employee is potentially subject or victim of an act of corruption during his career. Vigeo audit specialist in social responsibility, analyzed the anti-corruption strategies of European and North American, a first for this phenomenon is still seen as taboo. Then the extra-financial rating agency has established a ranking by sector.
Result: The European software and services score is 45 out of 100. Or pile-haired European average, all activities. The equipment and computer equipment industry is slightly better, with 53 out of 100.
"The computer is not part of the most vulnerable such as oil, gas, aerospace and defense sector, warns Jean-Philippe Rouchon, an analyst in the department responsible investment (SRI) Vigeo . We have established a weight of 1 to 3 depending on the risk exposure of corruption. The two IT sectors were weighted at 1. "
This does not prevent IT organizations from being affected by the problem in contracting between companies of different sectors. Typical example: a publishing partner of a firm operating in the defense as part of a tender.
A corporate culture?
Leading the good students fighting against corruption, there is SAP. His high score (76 out of 100) is to the credit of its decentralized network of compliance officers, responsible for ensuring the integrity of operations within the various group entities. "If in a multinational, there is only one person in charge of prevention, it will be difficult to know whether a subsidiary located in distant countries is the source of a foul. "
Especially since in many countries, business gifts are part of the corporate culture. "We need to set limits on the amounts reported gifts to local living standards," says Jean-Philippe Rouchon. Another good point to the credit of SAP, the publisher also works with Transparency International, an NGO based in Berlin.
In the second place, there is Steria. Not only the French IT services company has set up internal control systems and whistleblowing (*) to trace the suspects but also communicates the number and types of cases as well as corrective actions taken thereafter. Conversely, the study notes that a number of companies - just like Capgemini - stick to the alert system without incident tracking reassembled.
* A warning system for ethical or whistleblowing (whistle) allows any employee to report such acts of insider trading, conflict of interest or disclosure of confidential information. The fight against corruption is one of the areas authorized by the CNIL.
Sources: 01net
