Anti-corruption measures

PRINCIPLE 10: Combating corruption

Commitments and management systems

  • OECD Guidelines for multinational Enterprises, embedded in a variety of corporate guidelines
  • Compliance Management System according to the audit standard 980 of the Institute of Auditors (IdW PS980)
  • METRO Business Principles
  • METRO Anti-corruption guideline
  • METRO Consultant guidelines
  • Digital due diligence process for business partners (risk-based)

Measures 2019/20

  • The colour-coding highlights the corresponding measures and achievements
  • Items with this bullet point do not have any corresponding passages
  • Compliance communication in various – internal and external – formats to inform employees and third parties outside the company, including the METRO social network platform
  • Continuous implementation of the anti-corruption policy in day-to-day business
  • The IT tool CDDS (Compliance Due Diligence Solution) for digital business partner auditing has been rolled out and almost completely implemented company wide. For high-risk business partners, an extended due diligence assessment is planned, which will include the auditing of external databases.
  • Membership and participation in the Alliance for Integrity, an anti-corruption initiative of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the United Nations Global Compact

Achievements 2019/20

  • Examples of internal communication measures:
    • Compliance training on anti-corruption in various group-companies in central functions and in sales, partly as e-training
    • Compliance-Talks
    • Compliance presence on METRO’s social network
    • Communication campaign on the subject Speak-up (e.g. tissue boxes & posters)
    • Tones from the top in various group-companies on the content of the anti-corruption policy (e.g. acceptance of gifts)
  • Examples of external communication measures
    • Business guidelines on METRO’s websites – with access to the Compliance Reporting System
    • Code of Conduct for business partners on the METRO websites
    • Anti-corruption clause applied in external contracts, graded according to the risk of the business partner
  • Compliance Risk Workshops in various group-companies (depending on the level of risk) to identify corruption risks and compliance with guidelines
  • Workshops in almost all METRO companies to simplify and ensure the use of the digital tool (CDDS) company-wide, including the introduction of monitoring at corporate level of the reported cases
  • The colour-coding highlights the corresponding measures and achievements
  • Items with this bullet point do not have any corresponding passages