RETIA

CZ / EN

Compliance program

Corruption is defined for the purpose of the anti-corruption program of RETIA as an act leading to misuse of a position or office for personal benefit contrary to the legal order, ethical principles and to the detriment of organizations in/for which the corrupting individual operates.

RETIA decided to join the anti-corruption program with the aim to:

  • Minimize corruption risk in RETIA business operations,
  • Prevent corruption risks inside the Company while providing products and services for the company,
  • As a major Czech industrial enterprise, give an example how to prevent unethical behavior and corruption.

The RETIA anti-corruption program consists of the following parts:

  • Ethical code of conduct for the RETIA employees, a part of which deals with public tenders,
  • Ethical line to be used by anyone who wishes to report a corruptive or unethical action in connection with RETIA,
  • A set of processes and measures to evaluate corruption risks designed in line with the company business, employee groups or differences in markets where RETIA operates.

The RETIA anti-corruption program is carried out in cooperation with the Czech branch of Transparency International. We make the maximum effort to reflect requirements of the Defense Companies Anti-Corruption Index established by the Transparency International in Great Britain. The RETIA anti-corruption program is available to all company employees as well as to general public, including our suppliers, dealers, customers, media and self-government bodies in the Czech Republic and on all markets in the world where RETIA operates.

Code of Ethics

  1. The Code of Ethics applies to all employees in technical, economic and worker professions, company management and company directors. Certain provisions relate to the specific groups of employees (e.g. sales persons) or subjects outside the Company (e.g. suppliers) in the Czech Republic and in foreign countries where RETIA operates.
  2. RETIA requires its employees and partners to maintain legal regulations as well as the highest ethical standards based on fair conduct, mutual trust, transparency, honesty, integrity and responsibility.
  3. RETIA has joined the Transparency International program of safe technologies, and its employees are obliged to meet the requirements of the program and refer to it in their activities.
  4. RETIA management is generally responsible for the compliance with the anti-corruption program; the anti-corruption program is carried out by the Human Resources manager, who has direct access to the Company management in the matter of the anti-corruption program and is responsible for continuous compliance with the ethical and anti-corruption agenda in the Company. She is also responsible for monitoring and evaluation of the RETIA´s ethical and anti-corruption program and for implementation of the formal procedure to resolve corruption concerns.
  5. RETIA strictly rejects and prohibits any corruption conduct of its employees. In the event of demonstrably corruptive behavior, the Company claims damage compensation and usually terminates the employment immediately and within its legal liability, the Company reports the corruptive action to the Police of the Czech Republic which can instigate prosecution.
  6. RETIA prohibits any conflict of interests of its employees. Therefore, the employees may not participate in any contractor and business relations with RETIA as suppliers or consumers of goods and services in any direct or indirect way and may not receive any personal profit from such relations from other subject than RETIA. Conflict of interests resulting e.g. from family relationships or friendship in suppliers´ or customers of company bodies or those groups shares in such companies should be reported by the concerned employees to the RETIA Human Resources manager.
  7. In the event of suspected unethical, corruptive, occupational safety or environment disrupting behavior or behavior damaging the Company´s goodwill, an employee or any person who plausibly gets known hereof, should report to RETIA via the ET-LINK.
    However, this does not apply to petty-minded, evidence-lacking or false reports submitted with the aim to unjustly accuse a person or company. The reporting person is held fully responsible for such reports and can be sanctioned regarding to the fact that s/he disrupts the trust and standard working relationship in the Company, and as a consequence, they are contrary to the Code of Ethics.
  8. The RETIA employees, especially marketing and sales persons, are obliged to acquaint the external partners, mainly the suppliers, with the RETIA anti-corruption program, especially with parts hereof that concern such external partners.
  9. The RETIA sales persons are obliged in the process of business opportunities evaluation and business meetings to take corruption risks in consideration.  The risks depend on whether a client comes from the public or private sector and on the situation of a client´s country of origin in the global anti-corruption Transparency International scale and on the method of public tender opening (competitions or addressing one subject).
  10. The RETIA sales persons are obliged to check the available media and Internet resources for possible proven corruption cases related to the RETIA external partners and take them into consideration in the making of business decisions, including the option of termination relationships with partners involved in corruption.
  11. RETIA provides standard services for their partners in the context of building acceptable professional relationships including the option to cover the costs of accommodation during their partners’ stays and to extend gifts and hospitality. However, it is forbidden to provide a disproportionately luxurious accommodation, unethical and expensive entertainment or give gifts of a clearly unreasonable value. These actions are considered potentially corruptive in relation to the RETIA partners. Similarly, managers and employees of RETIA member companies, especially in their sales departments, are forbidden to accept such inappropriate services or luxurious gifts. In case such offers are extended by a partner, the employee is required to report this to their superior.
  12. At certain foreign markets, state employees are allowed to legally require facilitation payments. It is strictly forbidden for RETIA companies to provide such payments. Facilitation payments do not include business provisions for private sector partners, e.g. based on dealer agreements, license agreements or sales representation contract.
  13. Sponsorship relating to any business opportunity in the public or private sector is strictly forbidden. This rule applies also to gifts to political parties and movements.
  14. The aim of the Code of Ethics is its implementation in RETIA and support to the anti-corruption agenda and fair business in the general public and enterprises in the Czech Republic and in foreign markets where RETIA operates.

Jan Mikulecky
CEO RETIA, a.s.

Anti-corruption objectives

RETIA Code of Ethics

One of the key components of the RETIA anti-corruption program is the Code of Ethics for the company’s employees who are obliged to adhere to it. Some of its provisions also concern RETIA partners, e.g. sales representatives and dealers. The RETIA Code of Ethics is based on requirements of the UK-based Transparency International. The Code includes:

  • the ban of corruption
  • the ban of conflicts of interest
  • reporting of corruptive of unethical practices
  • special duties of sales departments concerning fulfilling the anti-corruption program
  • rules of sponsorship and donations to political parties and movements
  • the commitment to spread the anti-corruption program beyond RETIA

You can find the full wording of the RETIA Code of Ethics here.

RETIA Sponsoring Rules

As a socially responsible company operating in defense industry, RETIA supports mainly non-profit activities in the regions of the member companies residence. This covers mainly the activities such as sports, cultural, educational and other fields. Special attention is paid to educational events supporting development of technical disciplines which contribute to the national wealth of the Czech Republic, boost the national export potential and fight the chronical lack of promising students.

The main rule in RETIA’s sponsoring activities is that any support must not be tied to any specific business opportunities in public or private sector. Similarly, sponsoring under the circumstances of conflict of interests is also forbidden. Sponsoring activities of RETIA are usually publicized either by press releases or by posting the information on the website.

Support to Political Parties and Movements

The support to political parties and movements by RETIA must be transparent. At the same time, it must not be connected to any business opportunity in the public sector. RETIA strictly adheres to all legal obligations concerning any potential support to political parties.

Gifts and Hospitality

RETIA provides standard services for their partners in the context of building acceptable professional relationships including the option to cover the costs of accommodation during their partners’ stays and to extend gifts and hospitality.

However, it is forbidden to provide a disproportionately luxurious accommodation, unethical and expensive entertainment or give gifts of a clearly unreasonable value. These actions are considered potentially corruptive in relation to the RETIA partners. Similarly, managers and employees of RETIA member companies, especially in their sales departments, are forbidden to accept such inappropriate services or luxurious gifts. In case such offers are extended by a partner, the employee is required to report this to their superior.

Facilitation Payments

At certain foreign markets, state employees are allowed to legally require facilitation payments. It is strictly forbidden for RETIA companies to provide such payments. Facilitation payments do not include business provisions for private sector partners, e.g. based on dealer agreements, license agreements or sales representation contracts.

RETIA’s Involvement in Offset Programs

While Czech legislation, in adherence to the European law, does not further enable Czech companies to participate in offset programs as a part of public contracts of Czech government and ministries, they can be required to fulfil offset programs when working in foreign environments. A typical requirement, even in democratic countries, can be the partial transfer of production, which can be perceived as a so-called direct offset. RETIA, in cooperation with their foreign partners, carries out offset programs in strict accordance with national legislation, usually in order to fulfil customer’s need to gain the capability of partial production and maintenance of a product. RETIA refuses and does not participate in offset programs whose aim is to submit contracts unrelated to their activities, which include risk of corruption and could be misused in order to commit corruption. RETIA informs about the activities which can be perceived as direct offsets by standard means while communicating information about the original contract (the production transfer is possible only with major, publicly controllable projects).

RETIA Ethics Line (ET-LINK)

To create a unified reporting channel for testimonies of unethical, corruptive, illegal, unsafe or environment-damaging behaviour, RETIA company has created the Ethics Line which can be used by anybody to report the above-mentioned problematic behaviour in the form of sending a report to etika@retia.cz.

RETIA prefers that the reports are not anonymous because as such, they pose a risk of unethical behaviour themselves and abuse the Ethics Line. However, nobody is forced to leave his/her name.

The receiver of all reports is the RETIA HR department. If a report is submitted by e-mail, the HR acknowledge the acceptance and inform the sender within 14 days about the steps taken. After the report has been investigated, the sender is notified about the result.

RETIA declares that they value reasonable reports submitted to the Ethics Line. However, this does not apply to false reports submitted with the aim to unjustly accuse another person or company. Such report itself is a breach of the Code of Ethics and RETIA’s anti-corruption program with all the associated consequences.