Building corporate culture and values that are transparent, trustworthy, and against corruption

Throughout the business operation of more than 24 years, KEX has always placed great importance on honesty in business operations and work performance as seen in making honesty as one of its core values; and communicating with all employees for awareness — from the first day of becoming a part of KEX. We also include anti-corruption knowledge in the performance matrix which will reflect the employee's behaviour every year.

The anti-corruption policy was announced by the Company’s Board of Directors in 2019 to underscore the belief and culture of the Company. This is a supplementary policy extended from the Code of Business Conduct which covers the receiving and giving of gifts; guest reception; and giving political aid, donations and other kinds of support.

All directors, management, and employees are required to learn, sign to acknowledge, and comply with the anti-corruption policy as well as undertaking understanding assessment through compulsory courses which must be taken annually. Those who fail the assessment will have to retake it until they pass. During the year the Company Secretary and the Risk Management and Quality Control team have co-developed a communication channel for anti-corruption policy, including communication via email, Kerry Me application — which is similar to the Company’s intranet, notice boards, communication through supervisors, and campaign activities.

Strong regulatory measures

In addition to policy oversight by the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee and the set-up of organisational structure that has a balance of power, KEX has established an internal police team to supervise and spot-check the work performance of each business branch, including the Internal Audit Office which is independent and reports directly to the Audit Committee who will perform another round of inspection.

For employees and related parties in general, KEX has prepared several complaint channels via Kerry Nokweed (only for employees), the Internal Audit, Company Secretary and Audit Committee with strict measures to maintain confidentiality and to protect the complaint reporters with a communication channel under the whistleblower policy or via company website and various internal channels.

KEX has identified the risk of corruption as part of one of the risks that the organisation must assess, control, and have management plans to trim corruption cases down to zero. However, from the assessment of risk and potential of corruption cases, we found that KEX has a small chance of having corruption and bribing the public sector. Meanwhile, fraud among personnel, especially in the group related to payment-on-delivery, has been indicated as a risky factor that could lead to corruption.

Hence, the Risk Management Committee has assigned the Risk Management and Quality Control team to cooperate with the person in charge (of payment-on-delivery) in order to set up preventative measures and action plans to present and report to the Risk Management Committee every quarter. The Risk Management Committee is responsible for making a report to further present the case to the Board of Directors at the end of every quarter and to the shareholders in the Company’s annual report.

In addition to the control measures as mentioned above, the Board of Directors also assigned the Audit Committee to supervise and monitor employee’s compliance with the anti-corruption policy and business ethics as well as considering the punishment in the event that the offender is an executive or among the Board of Directors. The Audit Committee requires the management to report on the results and complaints of findings (if any) at least once a quarter.

Announcing determination to combat every form of impropriety

KEX announced the intent to participate in Thailand’s Private Sector Collective Action Coalition Against Corruption on March 23rd, 2021 to demonstrate the determination to operate its business transparently and readiness to combat all forms of corruption.