Compliance Program
Compliance, in the sense of measures to ensure adherence to statutory provisions and internal company policies, is a key management duty at ThyssenKrupp. The Company's Groupwide compliance activities focus on antitrust and anticorruption issues.
The ThyssenKrupp Compliance Program was introduced directly after the merger of Thyssen and Krupp in 1999. It has been regularly reviewed and has been subject to continuous enhancement.
ThyssenKrupp has subjected its groupwide Compliance Program to an examination according to the Compliance standard PS 980 of the Institute of Public Auditors in Germany (Institut der Wirtschaftsprüfer, "IDW") in relation to the areas of antitrust and anticorruption law with the period under review being April to September 2011 by KPMG AG.
The examination involved auditing the appropriateness of the design and implementation as well as auditing the effectiveness of the ThyssenKrupp Compliance Program which is the most intensive audit type of IDW PS 980. Due to particular regulations in the US and Canada, group companies there have not been part of the audit. KPMG issued an attestation according to which the ThyssenKrupp Compliance Management System has been appropriately implemented and effective in the period under review. As far as recommendations have been issued on the ground of findings, their implementation will be subject to review. The report of KPMG is available for download.
In April 2007 the Executive Board of ThyssenKrupp AG unequivocally reiterated its rejection of antitrust violations and corruption and to this end issued the ThyssenKrupp Compliance Commitment: Antitrust violations and corruption are not tolerated in the ThyssenKrupp Group (zero tolerance). The ThyssenKrupp Compliance Commitment is supplemented by a Compliance Code of Conduct and various Group policy statements and publications which explain the underlying statutory provisions in more detail and make them more specific for the Group and its employees.
On the Executive Board of ThyssenKrupp AG, responsibility for compliance is assigned to one member of the board. The Chief Compliance Officer who heads the central compliance division and coordinates the compliance activities within the ThyssenKrupp Group reports to the responsible board member. The compliance division of ThyssenKrupp AG consists of two departments, one responsible for providing advice on compliance and the other for the ThyssenKrupp Compliance program and compliance investigations. In performing its advisory function, the compliance team provides centralized support for the companies, managing directors and employees of the Group in all matters relating to compliance.
The compliance team responsible for the ThyssenKrupp compliance program and compliance investigations is in charge of the ongoing development and implementation of the Compliance Program and carries out internal compliance investigations. Any reports of infringements of the ThyssenKrupp Compliance Program are received and investigated.
At the Group companies, compliance managers – selected from among the executives – are responsible for implementing the compliance policies within their companies.
Employees of the Group are informed about the applicable statutory provisions and internal policies in classroom courses and through an interactive e-learning program available throughout the Group.
ThyssenKrupp employees can report concerns about possible violations to their supervisor or directly to the compliance department. In addition, the so-called Whistleblower Hotline is available for reporting compliance infringements, with the identity of the informant remaining confidential on request.
Up-to-date information on the status of implementation of the Compliance Program and training statistics can be found in the corporate governance declaration which is part of the management report and corporate governance report.
