Anticorruption in Russian Business: Response and Prevention

Taking anticorruption measures may be not just a nominal following the letter of the law but also a philosophy of market activity.

Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan -- (ReleaseWire) -- 09/26/2018 -- According to the Russian economic crime survey 2018, prepared by PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers), one of the largest consulting companies, the most widespread economic crime is illegal misappropriation of assets. It is followed by bribery and corruption. Procurement fraud takes third position. Anticorruption efforts are being taken everywhere, but they have failed to reduce the amount of such crimes so far. This tendency is not typical for Russia but for the rest of world as well where the share of abusive practices among top managers of companies has increased in recent years.

To mitigate the impact of negative factors, companies strengthen their response and prevention measures. Years-long international practical experience of ICL Services indicates that taking anticorruption measures may be not just a nominal following the letter of the law but also a philosophy of market activity.

International business ethics

Being one of the Russian IT market leaders for many years, ICL Services has been honestly and openly fighting for clients offering high level of service, using the accumulated experience and global practices in the area of rendering IT-related services. ICL Services clients come from 30 countries. This has contributed to the development of a single approach to the compliance of the company employees with the anticorruption legislation of Russia and other countries of its presence. At the moment, anticurruption activities hold a hold a significant place in the social responsibility policy of the company.

The company has developed its own mandatory anticorruption policy which includes norms, principles, procedures for the interaction with government structures, political parties, charity activities.

The company has studied international approaches to fighting illegal activities. It uses the experience of global partners and operates a zero tolerance policy with respect to bribery and corruption. There is a Compliance Manager in the company whose duties include countermeasures to illegal practices and ensuring the operation of the internal corruption-related risk control and management system.

Consequences of economic crimes: analysis

The PwC survey demonstrates that 56% of corporate respondents increased their spending on economic crime fighting during the last two years. Mainly, this is the result of increased amount of crime in Russia. For example, the bribery and corruption level grew by 11% (from 30% to 41%) as compared to 2016. Meanwhile, the global corruption is also growing but its share in the total amount of economic crimes is 25%.

But why is corruption a big problem? Firstly, the damage is related to loss of finance and assets. Secondly, failure to comply with anticorruption ethic standards by partners and suppliers directly affects the positive image of a company. Therefore, corruption is impermissible in ICL Services practices. When making contacts, the company includes the clause on observance the requirements of the applicable anticorruption legislation. The following can be mentioned among other intangible consequences of economic crimes: low employee morale, deterioration of business relationships, as well as dealing with regulating authorities.

Fair competition everywhere

The anticorruption policy of ICL Services is aimed at the corporate culture creation not only with respect to its own employees but also to its partners. The corruption risk is real threat to business, and we are making all possible effort to respond and prevent it. These measures are of strategic importance for us", says Sergey Solovyov, ICL Services Director.

The company performs internal audit of suppliers that are allowed to deal with ICL Services. During the audit, the following criteria are applied: quality and price, reputation, as well as ability to comply with all applicable legislation requirements.

Corporate culture

15% of respondents in Russia and 12% worldwide expect that they will encounter corruption and bribery in future. This forecast underlines the importance of creating mechanisms for bribery and corruption risk control, as well as corporate culture development.

"All employees of our company are aware of business ethics and follow these rules in the work on a daily basis", notes Evgenia Solonina, Deputy Staff Director at ICL Services, "All employees receive training on anticorruption measures with a series of tests and information on such a concept as "conflict of interests."

In general, each company employee can inform the compliance manager about noticed violations. There is a special section on the ICL Services corporate portal for employees to notify about actions that constitute corruption and other illegal activities of their colleagues. At the same time, the anticorruption policy guarantees employee protection from harassment and threats. ICL Services practices based on anticorruption principles is the cornerstone of the company's activities that promotes its successful development both in international IT markets and in Russia.

About ICL Services
ICL Services operates in the international market since 2006 and is the largest IT company in ICL Group. To date ICL Services has about 1,000 employees working successfully with over 50 major clients from 26 countries providing IT maintenance services 24 hours 7 days a week in English, Russian, French and German.

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