COMPLIANCE / OMBUDSMAN

The Company maintains high standards of business ethics, transparency and legality that are independent of business customs and other business conditions in a particular jurisdiction.

The primary target of compliance direction is to carry out activities on identifying, evaluating, preventing, and monitoring compliance risks arising in the course of business of “SamrukEnergy” JSC group, creating zero tolerance for corruption and bribery, building an anti-corruption culture and preventing compliance risks.

A single “hot line” operates at the Company, whereby a multichannel call-center, available to employees of all subsidiaries and affiliates across Kazakhstan, operate.

According to the results of the survey, it was found that – 86 % of those who were questioned trust the work of “hot line”, and satisfaction with the work amounted to 70 %.

Addressing conflicts of interest

To create an effective system for managing conflicts of interest, as well as determining requirements for the behavior of employees, compliance with which allows reducing risks of decision-making under the influence of personal interests and relationships at the Company, several measures are being taken.

The Policy for Settlement of Corporate Conflicts and Conflict of Interest of “Samruk-Energy” JSC has been available at “Samruk-Energy” JSC since 2018, under which executives and employees from heads of departments to those who hold higher positions, complete declaration on absence of conflict of interest.

Preliminarily, in order to eliminate corruption risks and conflicts of interest during the recruitment process, candidates for vacant positions at “Samruk-Energy” JSC and senior positions at subsidiaries and affiliates (according to the list of positions) are checked for affiliation with officials of “Samruk-Kazyna” JSC group of companies. The Compliance Service regularly monitors situations for conflicts of interest; 1 potential conflict of interest was settled in 2020.

Fighting Corruption

• The Company has created its approach based on the following principles: 
• Active involvement and support by management in the development of a compliance system. The Company’s Board of Directors regularly reviews reports on the implementation of the compliance program. 
• The Company regularly conducts activities aimed at identifying and further updating of corruption risks. 
• The Company develops and implements anti-corruption procedures that meet the level and nature of the identified risks, improves and updates internal policies and procedures. 
• The Company implements and supports a training program for employees on principles and standards of compliance with anti-corruption legislation. 
• The Company monitors the effectiveness of the implemented procedures to prevent corruption. 
• To reduce the risk of the Company’s involvement in corruption activities, the Company developed Due Diligence procedures for both counterparties and individuals.

To create an anti-corruption culture and zero tolerance for any forms of bribery and corruption, training events for clarifying the requirements, adopted compliance policies and anticorruption legislation are held for “Samruk-Energy” JSC group employees regularly.

All employees of “Samruk-Energy” JSC Group of Companies learned about the requirements of the Code of Conduct, the Anti-Fraud and Corruption Policy and employees were tested. As part of anti-corruption activities, the following activities were carried out in 2020:

On October 6, 2020, the Head of State signed the Law No. 365-VI “On Amendments and Additions to Certain Laws and Regulations of the Republic of Kazakhstan on AntiCorruption Issues.”

To bring in line with requirements of the law, the Action Plan for implementation of requirements of the RK Law “On Combating Corruption” dated November 18, 2015 No. 410-V ЗPK was developed at “Samruk-Energy” JSC and subsidiaries and affiliates and was approved by the resolution of the Board of Directors.

In order to create a corporate compliance culture, “SamrukEnergy” JSC held a meeting with the management of the Head Office (offline) and subsidiaries and affiliates (online) with representatives of the Anti-Corruption Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan on November 12, 2020. The meeting clarified the new requirements of the legislation on gifts and the expansion of anti-corruption entities.

Training

The Company employees are tested for knowledge of requirements of anti-corruption legislation and internal documents every year.

In 2020, the Company’s Compliance Service of the Company conducted 10 compliance inspections on cases involving calls to the “hotline” and detected violations of internal regulatory documents and legislation requirements at subsidiaries and affiliates.

As a result of inspections, subsidiaries and affiliates took actions on mitigating risks, as well as measures on taking disciplinary actions against executives and responsible employees.

According to the 2020 results, no corruption offenses in the actions of the head of a subsidiary were reported across the group of companies.

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Acting as an independent party, the Ombudsman contributes to the establishment and development of corporate values and culture, high standards of professional conduct and business ethics at the Company.

The Ombudsman tasks include:

• 1) assistance in the settlement of labor disputes, conflicts, problematic social and labor issues as well as helping employees in observing the principles of business ethics;
• 2) assistance in increasing the rating and image of the supervised Company, early prevention and settlement of disputes and conflicts;
• 3) ensuring informal communications between officials and employees of the Company, timely identification of problems and ways for improvement based on such communication, preparation of propositions for improving policies and procedures of the Company;
• 4) the Ombudsman submits problematic issues that are systemic in nature and require taking appropriate decisions (comprehensive actions), effective propositions for their resolution to the Board of Directors/Supervisory Board, and if available, to the Audit Committee under the Board of Directors/Supervisory Board.

According to the 2020 results, the Ombudsman received 20 different verbal appeals. All persons who submitted an appeal received comprehensive answers. Appeals and responses to them do not have a negative impact on the social stability of the Company as a whole. No case of appeal to the Ombudsman regarding discrimination on racial, religious, national, gender, age, political and other grounds was recorded. Respectively, in this regard, there were no written appeals