Ocyan appoints ethics agents to support Compliance Department

Measure aims to facilitate communication with team members on the high seas

Ocyan designated 20 team members from various departments and units, especially those on platforms and drilling rigs on the high seas, to act as compliance ambassadors for the company. The members chosen were trained by the Compliance Department to help disseminate the concepts and guidelines of best practices and to serve as a link between the Compliance Department and the company’s other areas. This is another important step in the comprehensive process to restructure and improve the company’s compliance rules and practices.

“Our goal is to foster a more workplace increasingly marked by ethical conduct, with integrity and transparency. The particularities of the business, where most team members work on the high seas, challenges us to seek solutions that ensure that compliance reaches everyone, in every location where we operate,” explained Nir Lander, Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) at Ocyan.

Since end-2016, Ocyan has increased its investments in compliance, which included hiring a CCO from the market to lead the department and develop a solid integrity program aligned with best market practices. During this period, the Compliance Department, which has eight dedicated members, implemented several anti-corruption policies and procedures and trained all team members, without exception, on the subject, adapting the content to the different publics.

Ocyan also launched the Ethics Line, a new independent whistleblowing channel that is managed by an outsourced company to ensure confidentiality and no retaliation against whistleblowers. Advanced corporate governance measures also were adopted, with two independent directors now sitting on the Board of Directors.

Results

Ocyan trained 3,200 team members on the company’s new Compliance System, including those stationed on platforms and drilling rigs on the high seas. The company also has already analyzed around 600 of its 1,800 suppliers using an integrity due diligence process that assesses the risks of contracting third-party companies. To date, this meticulous process has disqualified at least ten suppliers, which were excluded from the registry.

Another good result was the increase of around 400% in the number of people who began to identify themselves when reporting to the Ethics Line compared to the previous channel, which attests to the new model’s heightened credibility. As a result, the average time for investigating reports decreased by around 20%, since the solution facilitates interaction between the whistleblower and the Compliance Department, which is responsible for ascertaining the facts.