Corporate Integrity: An agenda built on culture

Time is king, the poet, now immortal, used to say. Just as for us, individuals, when faced with the most difficult challenges and dilemmas, we turn to our essence and the values consolidated by our experiences, the same is true for companies that need to implement integrity and governance improvement processes in their routines to overcome difficult stages or detours. Each step has a certain time, according to the maturity of the moment, so that it can be perceived, accepted, assimilated and followed by everyone.

Based on this premise we created the foundations that give us the assurance that we have an effective integrity program, based on legitimate purposes and on the culture that is consolidated in the attitudes of each individual. People can make mistakes and companies are made up of people. This is why it is so important to have processes in place as safety elements that allow us to prevent, detect, and correct situations discordant with the commitments we have undertaken, based on a framework of governance, instances, controls, and well-defined responsibilities. The company’s health and reputation are everyone’s responsibility in the company.

This learning process has consolidated in the company and in its members, a keen sense of responsibility, which drives us to maintain the highest standards of governance, aligned with global best practices. This year we celebrated five years of our Integrity Policy, which underlies our commitment and concern with the theme, which is always evolving, with the understanding that the advances we have achieved in this period are largely due to the awareness that this cannot be a document in a drawer, but a practical daily attitude with no room for flexibilization.

To keep the best corporate governance standards, we have incorporated independent board members; Integrity, Audit, Finance, Risks, and Ethics committees; we have adopted a Code of Conduct for members and suppliers; we have instituted a complaints channel; and, we have implemented compliance targets for executives and their teams, directly impacting their compensation, and many other initiatives. As a way to crown all this evolution, this year we have expanded the scope of our ISO 37001 seal, international anti-bribery certification, for all our operations in Brazil and in several countries where we operate.

We stand alongside entities and institutions that seek to help improve integrity in the business world and the public sector. In addition to the Movement for Integrity in the Engineering and Construction Sector (Misec), supported by the Global Compact Network Brazil and the Ethos Institute, we partnered with Ethos Institute’s Business Movement for Integrity and Transparency, and the Brazilian Institute for Self-Regulation in the Infrastructure Sector (IBRIC). All imbued with the same causes.

A trajectory with great challenges, tangible results, and concrete achievements, which fill us with pride and renew our certainty that we are doing the right thing for the good of our company, the industry, and society.

 Alexandre Baltar, Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) da OEC.