The announcement of the change of pace was made yesterday during the fifth edition of the Leonardo Compliance Council, the annual meeting of the management of Piazza Monte Grappa. From yesterday in Leonardo to freeze business relations with direct or indirect counterparties, the “gate” of the indictment decree issued by a magistrate will no longer be sufficient. The opening of a criminal file by a prosecutor will suffice.
Serious offenses
Of course, all this will apply to cases of serious crimes such as corruption (private and public), extortion, associative crimes and those related to money laundering. Another tightening concerns the contracts linked to the pressure group system: the so-called lobbies. «Article 346 bis of the criminal code – explained Andrea Parrella, Group General Counsel of Leonardo – does not exclude the possible imputation of the company in the event of trafficking of illicit influences, and this also for activities carried out abroad. Therefore the Leonardo group companies will not be able to sign Lobbying contracts ».
The meeting
Yesterday’s meeting, in the presence of two hundred first and second line managers (another thousand remotely), which was attended, in addition to the CEO of Leonardo Alessandro Profumo, its president Luciano Carta, the presidents of the two Med-Or foundations and Leonardo CdM, respectively Marco Minniti and Luciano Violante, in addition to the president of ANAC, Giuseppe Brusia, was also an opportunity both to take stock of the achievements of the group on the subject of compliance and on the twenties (completed in June) of Law 231 on the administrative liability of entities.
Profumo’s intervention
On the first issue, Profumo underlined how “the compliance function plays a fundamental and pervasive role because it contributes on a daily basis to protect and strengthen what is the most valuable asset for a company: its good name and reputation. – E Profumo he added: “In this sense, Leonardo, with the path undertaken in recent years, is fully in line with the European commitment, which just recently, on the occasion of the International Week of Democracy, not only recalled the Member States to responsibility on issues of human rights, but also reiterated the urgency of uniform legislation on corporate compliance. Leonardo, well aware of this urgency, – underlined Profumo – is already monitoring the entire value chain of business activity, also taking into account the criticality generally inherent in some processes and relationships. Hence the strengthening of our Trade Compliance Program. This has prompted us to intensify and speed up our ethical / reputational checks. And I can say that we have succeeded, without ever lowering our verification standards ».
Card: “231 needs a coupon”
As for 231 of 2001, the law governing and sanctioning the criminal liability of companies and entities, the president of Leonardo, the former director of the Aise Luciano Carta, wondered if “the time has come to give you a” coupon “To the norm. making those changes that, according to some observers, could be extended to the use of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, in the design and implementation of compliance strategies “. More generally, Carta recalled that “preventing the crime is primarily a benefit for the company. Not only because if it demonstrates that it has adopted an organization, management and control model suitable for mitigating the risk of crime, it will be able to enjoy full exclusion of liability. Or an attenuation of the sanctions in the event that such fulfillment occurred after the crime was contested -. And Carta added – Crime prevention is also – and in this forum let me say above all – a benefit, because the virtuous company presents itself on the market with characteristics of competitiveness ».