Best Practices Session: Creating a Gifts & Entertainment Program That Works
Speakers Rob Lindquist Chief Compliance Officer Panasonic Avionics Aleksandra Cuprys Vice President and Assistant General Counsel, Compliance Univision Communications, Inc.
Company Bio Univision Communications, Inc. Univision is the leading multimedia company serving Hispanic America, with a mission to inform, empower and entertain our community. We are the leading destination for U.S. Hispanics, commanding more than half of the Spanish-language primetime Adult 18-49 audience and reaching an estimated 104 million average monthly unduplicated media consumers. We engage consumers via our portfolio of 17 broadcast, cable and digital networks and partnerships, including UDN, Fusion, a minority stake in El Rey Network, as well as 120 local TV and Radio stations, and a growing digital portfolio including Gizmodo, Jalopnik, Jezebel, Deadspin, Kotaku and the Onion. We are headquartered in NYC and have content creation facilities across the country.
Company Bio Panasonic Avionics
Agenda 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Company Introductions Compliance Risks from Gifts & Entertainment Gifts and Entertainment Policies Training and Communication Tracking and Technology Final Comments and Questions
Compliance Risks from Gifts & Entertainment Corruption Bribery Conflicts of Interest Reputational Harm
Gifts, Entertainment and Compliance Related Policies Anti-corruption Conflicts of Interest Payola/Plugola Charitable Donations and Sponsorships Political Contributions Travel and Finance Procurement Policies Sanctions Policy
Policy Section 3: Our Responsibility For Honest and Fair Business Conduct 3.1 Avoiding Conflicts of Interest 3.2 Giving and Receiving Gifts, Meals and Entertainment 3.4 Interacting with Government Bodies and Officials 3.5 Doing Business Internationally 3.6 Doing Business Fairly 3.7 Working with Suppliers, Customers and Others 3.8 Participating in Political Charitable Activities
Policy-Univision While giving and receiving appropriate gifts, meals, and entertainment are part of maintaining good business relationships, they must serve a legitimate business purpose and should not: Create an actual (or the appearance of a) conflict of interest; Compromise objective business decision-making; Be given in order to obtain or retain an improper business advantage; Involve paid trips or personal travel or vacation arrangements for you or your family members; or Involve a loan, cash, or cash equivalents (such as gift cards or securities). In general, gifts, meals, and entertainment should be: Infrequent, and given and received in a transparent manner; Reasonable and appropriate under the circumstances and not excessively lavish; Avoided (whether you are giving or receiving) if valued in excess of $100 per instance and $500 in one year; Consistent with the recipient s own rules on receiving gifts, meals, and entertainment; and Attended by a representative of the inviting company, when meals or entertainment are involved. Additional restrictions may apply to certain Univision businesses units.
Foundational Questions Does the policy apply only to giving of gifts and entertainment or also receiving? These rules, whether in the offering or accepting of gifts and hospitality, apply uniformly throughout the year; no exceptions are made for holiday periods, whatever the country or culture Different treatment of gifts versus entertainment: If a company representative will accompany the customer to the event, this is hospitality and subject to the entertainment limitations set forth in this policy. If the tickets are for the customer and his or her guest to enjoy by themselves, then this is a gift and subject to the gift limitations set forth in this policy.
Setting Limits What kind of limits? Zero tolerance? No dollar limits, just commercially reasonable and customary? Tell the readers what they can do, as well as what they can t do PAC: A company employee can offer hospitality to a customer employee or government agency employee only where it is: (1) Reasonable, proportionate, and customary under the circumstances; and (2) Where the acceptance of such hospitality does not violate the laws or policies of the government agency or customer. (3) The hospitality shall not exceed the amount of $250 per customer or government agency employee per event, without pre-approval.
Fine-Tuning the Limits Government official versus commercial customer PAC: A company employee can offer gifts to a government agency employee or customer employee only: (1) Up to the value of $100 in any given year and (2) Where the acceptance of such gift does not violate the laws or policies of the government agency or customer. Exceptions: Higher-level execs given more discretion? Exceptions for special events? PAC: In certain limited circumstances, such as to celebrate the signing of an important contract a company employee can offer a gift to a government agency or to a customer, as opposed to individual government agency employee or customer employee, that may exceed $100 in value. These gifts shall be offered only after written pre-approval from the Chief Compliance Officer.
More Fine-Tuning How to handle the awkward situation: PAC: If you receive a gift that is determined to be in violation of this policy, it should immediately be returned to the sender with a polite letter indicating that receipt of the gift violates company policy. If for any reason it proves impractical to return the gift, the gift should be donated to a company-sponsored charity. The decision to return the gift or to donate to charity should be documented in an email to the company Chief Compliance Officer.
Training and Communication At UCI, training and communication serve as the cornerstone of our prevention efforts. We aim to conduct risk-based, live training with senior members of our in-house compliance team. We have also created micro training video shorts, featuring our in-house talent, on various compliance topics, including, anti-bribery and conflicts of interests. Our employees received the video via email and their participation records are automatically stored in our learning management system.
Tracking & Technology Automating the approval for gifts and hospitality Emails? Concur? At Univision, we require employees to disclose all gifts & entertainment that are above defined thresholds to the Compliance Department, by email, walk-in or call. We require disclosure and pre-approval of any gifts and entertainment (whether giving or receiving) that are over the threshold amounts.
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