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The Shell General Business Principles have defined who we are and how we behave for more than 30 years. We expect them to continue to guide us in the next 50 years as well, as we help build a responsible energy future. Our Code of Conduct gives staff more detailed guidance about the behaviour our Business Principles require.
Behaving with integrity
At the heart of our Business Principles are three core values: honesty, integrity and respect for people. Business integrity, in practice, means something clear and simple: zero tolerance of bribes and fraud, including facilitation payments. Cases of bribery and fraud are reported to the Audit Committee of the Board of Royal Dutch Shell plc. In 2007, 112 violations were reported. As a result, we ended our relationship with 151 staff and contractors.
Contractors
We expect contractors to conform to our, or equivalent business principles, including our HSE policy, in all aspects of their work with us. In many locations, we provide training to help them understand and comply with these principles. If they cannot comply, we are required to review the relationship. In 2007, we cancelled 35 contracts due to failures to adhere to Business Principles, according to our annual internal questionnaire of senior Shell country representatives. Half the cases involved violations of our HSSE standards. A number of contracts were cancelled in India, Madagascar and the USA.
Competition laws
We support free competition and seek to do business fairly, ethically and in accordance with applicable competition laws, which prohibit practices like price-fixing. As our Code of Conduct makes clear, no violation of competition laws will be tolerated in Shell. Regretfully, violations do sometimes happen. In 2007, we were fined $852,000 in El Salvador for alleged unfair pricing practices in retail. We are appealing this case. In Argentina, our appeal against a fine for $33,000 imposed in 1998 for fixing liquid petroleum gas prices was dismissed.
Helping staff and partners live by our principles
Since 2005, we have had a global helpline and website for staff and business partners to report concerns confidentially and get advice on any suspected infringements of the law or our Business Principles. The helpline is managed by an independent external specialist and available 24 hours a day, all year round. Nearly 40% of all suspected infringements were reported through the helpline in 2007. Staff made line management or human resources departments aware directly of the remaining 60%.
We provide online and face-to-face training in key areas, including bribery and corruption, and compliance with competition laws. By the end of 2007, nearly 20,000 staff had been through competition law training. We also began training to help staff understand what the Code of Conduct (launched in 2006) requires of them. This included rolling out mandatory online training across the company during 2007, designed to help employees put our Business Principles into practice. The training included a number of real-life scenarios to demonstrate dilemmas that employees may encounter in their daily work and how to deal with them.
