ETHICS AND INTEGRITY

SOCAR wishes to offer both employees and business partners a work environment with a high degree of trust, ethics and professional behaviour, having zero tolerance towards any legal violation that could have a negative impact on SOCAR’s reputation and image.

We want to encourage employees as well as business partners to report to us information regarding any possible violation of the rules of ethics and professional behaviour as well as the legal provisions in force, especially those stipulated in Law 361/2022 on the protection of whistleblowers for the public interest.

WHISTLEBLOWERS

Who can report?

Any natural person who has suspicions regarding violations of the law, obtained in a professional context, respectively the following categories of persons: (i) natural persons who are in a work or service relationship with SOCAR; (ii) persons whose employment relationships have not yet begun and who make reports through internal or external reporting channels or publicly disclose information regarding violations of the law obtained during the recruitment process or other pre-contractual negotiations or if the report of the work or service relationship has ceased, as well as volunteers or interns; (iii) persons carrying out an independent activity within the meaning of art. 49 of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union; (iv) shareholders and personnel who are part of the administrative, management or supervisory body; (v) any person who works under the supervision and management of a person who has or had the capacity of contractor of SOCAR, and/or its subcontractors or suppliers.

What can be notified?

Violations of the law regarding the areas provided by Law no. 361/2022 in particular, but not limited to the following: non-compliance with SOCAR policies, regulations and internal procedures, violations of the law in areas such as: public procurement, services and products, prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing, product safety and compliance, transport safety, environmental protection, public health, consumer protection, privacy and personal data protection, issues related to human rights, violations of competition legislation, any danger to the individuals health and safety as well as any attempt at concealment/hiding of the situations described above.

Content of the report

If you have suspicions about a violation of the law obtained in the professional context and you want to disclose it, you can use the following reporting methods: (i) by e-mail to the following dedicated address: avertizorintegritate@socarpetroleum.ro (ii) by post/courier to the following postal address: Bucuresti, strada Pechea, nr.32-36, etaj 4, sector 1, cod postal 013982, to the attention of the Legal Department; (iii) by material filing in the special place set up within the Secretariat service, to the attention of the Legal Department.

The signed report must contain at least the following: the last name and first names of the whistleblower, their contact details, the professional context in which the violations were obtained, the description of the fact that could constitute a violation, the evidence supporting the report, the date and signature of the reporter. The anonymous report must contain the same information as the signed report, minus the identity of the whistleblower and their signature.

Whistleblower protection

The whistleblower system created by SOCAR guarantees the protection of whistleblowers against reprisals and illegal sanctions. The investigation process will ensure full confidentiality and the information will be analysed seriously, impartially and independently.

Settlement of the Report

The legal department will register the report in the special register of the public interest reports and will send the whistleblower an acknowledgment of receipt within seven (7) calendar days at most from the receipt of the report, indicating the registration number. The acknowledgement of receipt of the report will be sent to the whistleblower in writing by direct delivery under the receipt signature, by post/courier with acknowledgment of receipt to the correspondence address indicated in the report or by electronic means to the email address indicated in the whistleblower’s report. The legal department will determine the subsequent actions necessary to settle out the report.