>> Clearly defined regulations help to prevent corruption.

A Philosophy of Transparency and Ethical Standards
 

The trust of its customers, partners and the general public is important to SWB. Being a credible and responsible partner means that our employees must constantly and constructively question their actions and act within clearly defined boundaries.

Our aim is a philosophy that is internalized by all of our employees in their everyday dealings with customers, suppliers, the awarding of contracts and other business transactions.
Stadtwerke Bonn is a full member of Transparency International (TI).

SWB has a zero tolerance policy on corruption:
The “Corruption Prevention” working group has worked with the SWB’s Legal Advisor to draw up internal guidelines to combat and prevent corruption. The guidelines are binding for all employees. The aim is to ensure transparency in all processes and procedures. The core elements of the guidelines are: procurement guidelines that go far beyond the statutory contract awarding regulations, IT controlled award of contract, the integrity declaration, the internal control system (IKS) to ensure the order, security and profitability of internal procedures.

It is generally forbidden to accept gifts and other benefits at SWB. Employees have undertaken to adhere to corresponding guidelines. Adherence to the internal guidelines is monitored regularly.

Values can only be transported by people:
Prohibiting and monitoring certain behaviour does not suffice as a means of avoiding and preventing corruption. SWB therefore also focuses on internalized values when it comes to preventing and combating corruption. These are attitudes, directions, orientations, convictions, opportunities to take action and behaviour that are considered desirable for SWB employees. The orientation to these values aims to ensure the sustainable implementation of integer business practices in all divisions of SWB and the strengthening of employee self-responsibility that goes beyond the formal adherence to laws and regulations.
 

Stadtwerke Bonn became a corporate member of Transparency International on 17 March 2003. The Group’s Managing Directors have signed the following voluntary declaration of commitment in this regard:

“We have joined Transparency International - Deutsches Chapter e.V. because we reject any form of corruption whatsoever.
We support all efforts aimed at higher ethical standards in business transactions and are unwilling to tolerate any form of corruption in our own company or to accept it among our business partners.
Our company has introduced a binding corporate policy for all employees stating that bribery or any other form of corruption may neither be used nor tolerated. We also have an implementation programme for the training of our employees in active corruption prevention.
We are also working in our syndicates to ensure that industry specific problem areas are identified and that the appropriate measures are implemented.”

• Click here to visit the website of Transparency International.