Anti-Corruption Practices in Russian IT Business

Kazan, Russia, October 8, 2015 (Newswire.com) - To fight corporate corruption the Russian state and public structures are mobilized. Private business, its owners and shareholders are constantly exposed to the risk of adverse effects of corruption too. The corruption inhibits the growth of foreign investments. Financial and reputational losses can become the most significant impact of corruption on the business.

To reduce the influence of negative factors the business must, first of all, begin from itself through introduction of anti-corruption practices into the management of the company. On January 1, 2013 the Article 13.3 of the Federal Law of December 25, 2008 No.273 “On Combating Corruption” entered into force; according to it, companies are obliged to develop and implement measures for its prevention. The ICL Services’ long international experience showed that the use of anti-corruption measures can become not a mere adherence to the law, but also the philosophy of market activity.

International Business Ethics

For many years occupying one of the leading positions in the IT market in Russia, the ICL Services fairly and openly fights for customers by providing a high level of service, applying its experience and using international practices in the IT services provision. Geography of the ICL Services’ customers, which covers 26 countries, contributed to the formation of a uniform approach to the employees’ adherence to the anti-corruption legislation of Russia and other countries of presence, and today the anti-corruption activities are an important part of the corporate policy related to the social responsibility.

The company developed its own binding anti-corruption policy which contains norms, principles, procedures for interaction with governmental bodies, political parties, charity activities.

Having reviewed international approaches to fighting illegal activity and guided by the experience of global partners, the company operates in accordance with the zero tolerance policy for bribery and corruption. The company appointed the Compliance Manager who is responsible for combating illegal practices and ensuring the functioning of the internal control system and corruption risk management.

Absolutely fair competition

Anti-corruption policy of the ICL Services is aimed at creating a corporate culture not only for its own employees, but also among partners. “Business must take a direct and active participation in combating corruption and have a clear attitude to this issue”, - Director of the ICL Services Sergei Solovyov says.

Adherence to ethical rules by partners and suppliers has a direct impact on formation of a positive image of the company. For this reason in its communications with partners, suppliers and customers the ICL Services adheres to the principle of non-corruption and includes norms of the current anti-corruption legislation into its contracts.

The company annually conducts internal audit of suppliers with whom ICL Services has a right to do the business; the audit involves the criteria of quality and price, reputation, and ability to comply with all applicable legal requirements. We also expect our suppliers to work in accordance with the principles set out in the “International Business Standards”, a set of criteria for business and technology evaluating, used today by all players of the world market as a reference base for standardization.

Everyone should know

Corruption control means not only the ethical standards of interaction with customers and partners. It also includes personnel training with mandatory testing of knowledge of the anti-corruption policy and the internal rules of business ethics, which is held annually for all employees without exception.

“Preventive actions play an important role in ​​our human resources development, – the HR manager of ICL Services Alsu Glinskaya notes. – Upon hiring all employees get acquainted with the rules of business ethics and are trained under anti-corruption program which also includes testing, and are informed about “conflict of interests” concept when an employee’s personal interest may influence his/her decision-making”.

In general, every employee of the company can inform the Compliance Manager about violations. At the corporate portal of the ICL Services there is a dedicated section for notifications of activities with corruption component and other illegal practices of colleagues. At this, the anti-corruption policy guarantees the protection of employees against harassment and threats.

The ICL Services understands that corporate corruption hinders the competent company management, entails substantial additional expenses for business, its customers and partners, and represents a real threat to adherence to social responsibility. Therefore the anticorruption principles, according to which the ICL Services conducts its business, are the core principle of the company, contributing to its successful development both on the international IT market and in Russia.