Corporate Citizenship:
Governance
Transparency, integrity, trustworthiness, and a sense of responsibility are basic values on which SAP's solid global reputation is built. Our own principles of corporate governance, transparent for all stakeholders, set out the principles for the work of the executive and supervisory boards of SAP.
These values also intrinsically inform the capabilities of our software products and services, solutions which help both our public sector and our private sector clients improve the transparency and accountability of their operations. By using SAP software, our clients can effectively manage their finances and operations as well as establish and maintain an organizational culture that provides constituents and stakeholders with accessibility and encourages their accountability. Through the relentless demand for corporate accountability in our complex economy, SAP has become an industry leader in providing appropriate governance, risk, and compliance solutions.
Our own Code of Business Conduct for Employees demonstrates SAP's commitment to fostering integrity in all we do. Additionally, SAP's policy forbids all forms of bribery, including so-called "grease" or "facilitation" payments currently lawful in some jurisdictions. Our Global Compliance Office oversees the enforcement of this commitment and conducts training sessions to aid awareness.
By harnessing our expertise as a company, we believe we can significantly contribute to the global fight against unethical behavior and encourage ethical performance by enabling transparency and accountability, which in turn builds the trust institutions need to realize economic development.
Our work with the following organizations is a testament to our commitment, especially in those nations that suffer when corruption goes uncontested:
|
Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) – EITI aims to end the problem of the so-called "resource curse," where resource-rich countries are often the poorest performing economies, creating problems which lead to runaway inflation, indebtedness, institutional weakness, and social and political instability. EITI is a multi-stakeholder initiative encompassing industry, government, and multilateral agencies and NGOs. This organization strives to improve governance in resource-rich countries through the verification and full publication of company payments and government revenues generated from oil, gas, and mining activities. ETI also works towards ensuring that national receipts are dedicated to sustainable development. In response to a communication from The Gleneagles G8 Summit requesting greater technical assistance for producing government public sector agencies lacking in adequate capacity resources to implement EITI, SAP has partnered with the German government international development agency (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit, GTZ) and EITI to provide this help.
|
|
Transparecy International (TI) – As part of our commitment to governance management aspects of sustainability, SAP actively partners with Transparency International – the world's leading non-governmental organization devoted to fighting corruption. SAP is a corporate member of the German chapter of Transparency International and has been supporting the "Convention on Business Integrity" in Nigeria since 2002. Together with other leading companies, SAP is a member in the Business Principles Steering Committee and has been active in the "Global Corporations for Transparency" initiative since 2005. In the first such collaboration of its kind in the software industry, TI will advise SAP on GRC product development in critical high-risk areas such as corporate anti-corruption management and anti-money laundering controls.
|
|
UN Global Compact – When this organization was formed in 2000, SAP stepped forward to become one of its first signatories. Today, SAP serves on the organization's 10th principle working group, a committee which supports the global effort to control corruption and reduce associated poverty and injustice.
|