The journey towards integrity and transparency started by the Group’s commitment in December 2018 to voluntarily adopt the ISO 37001:2016 Anti Bribery Management System certification, the first Italian company in the finance and communications sector to obtain the Anti-Bribery and Corruption Certification.
Anti-corruption policy
Regarding the prevention of corruption, Poste Italiane is committed to complying with the corruption prevention management system according to ISO 37001:2016 and, together with the directly or indirectly controlled companies (in the latter case, based on specific nature and size of the company and taking into account the applicable regulations), by adopting adopts the following general principles:
- Ensuring behaviour based on fairness, loyalty and moral integrity that forbids corruption;
- Observing all the applicable laws, rules and regulations aimed at fighting corruption;
- Conducting their activities so as not to commit any acts of corruption, in any form, either directly or indirectly, and not to facilitate or risk involvement in illegal situations, both with either public or private parties;
- Providing a framework for identifying, reviewing and achieving corruption prevention objectives;
- Encouraging whistleblowing activities in good faith, or on the basis of reasonable conviction, without fear of retaliation and ensuring that no whistleblowers are discriminated against with effects on the conditions work related to the complaint;
- Pursuing any behaviour that does not comply with the policy for the prevention of corruption through the application of the company’s disciplinary system;
- Encouraging every possible effort to prevent corruption by related third parties, including joint ventures and entities upstream or downstream the supply chain (e.g., agents, intermediaries, sellers, contractors, suppliers);
- Ensuring that the “Compliance Function for the Prevention of Corruption” is endowed with appropriate competence, status, authority and independence, enabling it to exercise its role for supervising the design and implementation of the system, providing advice to personnel on corruption prevention matters, ensuring compliance with the ISO 37001:2016 standard and reporting to senior management on the performance of the system.
Anti-corruption-related activities
With the aim of disseminating the Group's ethical principles, Poste Italiane invests in training and information activities for its employees, offering seminars and courses on transparency, integrity and anti-corruption, communicating its principles to stakeholders through the dissemination of the Code of Ethics, Policies and Guidelines. Training and communication constitute, in fact, a continuum of coordinated actions aimed at supporting the dissemination of the culture of compliance and legality in line with the roles, responsibilities and levels of risk exposure of each individual, including through adequate top management commitment.
In 2023 was the start of the new version of the online course “The Integrated Management System: the Rules of the Game”, an anti-corruption training activity which, in continuity with previous editions, is intended for all Poste Italiane Group staff and describes the integrated Quality and Anti-Corruption Management System with which Poste Italiane has equipped itself, focusing on the provisions of the reference legislation on the subject and focusing attention, through the description and analysis of concrete cases, on the good practices to be followed to ensure quality and prevent corruption.
In addition, Poste Italiane has set up a reporting system and an Ethics Committee with the task of managing reports and violations. In this regard, the Group has introduced the “Guideline on Whistleblowing”, a document aimed at regulating the system through which reports can be made by personnel and third parties, with reference to acts or facts referable to violations of internal and/ or external regulations, as well as illegal or fraudulent conduct that may determine, directly or indirectly, a financial or image damage for the Company. The Group has made a reference portal available to the recipients of the Guidelines, the management of which is entrusted to the Whistleblowing Committee, which also performs the functions of the Ethics Committee and is responsible for receiving, examining and evaluating the communications received. The Whistleblowing Committee envisages assigning to an external professional with high standards of professionalism, honourableness and independence and the permanent presence within the Committee of the Group Risk Management structure/Oversight 231, in order to ensure constant assessment of the relevance of the reports received.
Compliance
Compliance with the UNI ISO 37001 standard, relating to anti-corruption management systems, represents an opportunity for Poste Italiane to strengthen its commitment to fight corruption and contribute to consolidating the principle of legality, with obvious benefits for the protection of the company's reputation and assets. In 2023, the commitment made by Poste Italiane with its stakeholders regarding the certification in accordance with ISO 9001 and ISO 37001 "Quality Management and Corruption Prevention System" to the entire perimeter of the company's processes and sites (approximately 16,000 sites) was achieved. In particular, the activities carried out have made it possible, in line with the extension initiatives of previous years, to maintain the Integrated Quality and Anti-Corruption Certification covering the entire Poste Italiane perimeter. With regard to Group companies, all certifications obtained, as of 2019, by the companies Poste Vita, PostePay, BancoPosta Fondi SGR, SDA Express Courier, Poste Assicura, EGI and Postel were confirmed.