Business integrity and ethics
As a global company, we are committed to doing business ethically and transparently.
We have zero tolerance for bribery and corruption. Unethical behavior can damage our business, reputation, and our social license.
We expect our employees, business partners and third parties such as contractors, consultants and suppliers, to operate in line with our commitment to do what is right and treat others with dignity and fairness.
Our core values, our responsibilities and the principles and behaviors that guide how we do business are codified in our Anti-Bribery and Anti-Corruption Policy and our Anti-Fraud Policy, as well as our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics. Protecting ourselves from and taking a stance against corruption, bribery and fraud is one of our sustainability principles and a foundational value.
We couple these policies and codes with a culture of responsible behavior, and have a group wide business integrity program lead by our Senior Vice President Business Assurance, Risk and Business Integrity to help everyone at Barrick understand and deliver against our standards.
We have and track a target of 100% adherence to our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics and our related policies each year.
Just as we expect all our employees to deliver with integrity, we have similar, clearly defined minimum standards for our suppliers, through the Supplier Code of Ethics. Additional standards include human rights as well as anti-bribery and anti-corruption related requirements built into our contractual arrangements.
Further detail regarding our business integrity and ethics policies and programs is available in our Sustainability Governance Approach.
In 2022. For the third consecutive year, 100% of required employees completed training in our online ethics training. Separately, we conducted several anti-corruption risk assessments at our operations and used the results of these assessments to improve and update the Business Integrity and Ethics program.
We also continued to promote our hotline, emphasize our dedication to non-retaliation for whistleblowers across our operation and implemented an updated ethics training program, which all eligible employees and identified third parties were required to take.
Aligning with industry-leading best practices
Given the complexity and global nature of many ESG challenges we strive to collaborate with peers and partners in the industry where we can. We are a member of the World Gold Council (WGC) and the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM)
We endorse and have implemented the Responsible Gold Mining Principles (RGMPs) and the Mining Principles Performance Expectations, which we refer to collectively as the RGMPs+. While the RGMPs are only applicable to gold operations, through the converged RGMPs+ we also apply their standards to our Copper operations. This helps to drive standardisation of our policies, standards and procedures, it also reflects our unwavering commitment to responsible production. Our 2022 Sustainability Report sets out our conformance with the RGMPs+.
During 2020, all sites completed a self-assessment against the RGMPs+. Following completion of the self-assessment action plans were developed to close any gaps identified. Progress against actions are tracked and reported internally on a quarterly basis.
External Assurance site visits was completed at North Mara and the Nevada Gold Mines complex for the 2022 reporting year. The external assurance site visits are planned on a priority and materiality basis for the coming years.
The process shows that Barrick conforms with the RGMPs and there are no material non-conformances or partial non-conformances.