First Compliance Seminar in Serbia Certified by CCB

International companies based in the USA, UK, Western European countries and other highly regulated countries are obliged to adhere to the standards of ethics and integrity defined through various laws and conventions (Foreign Corruption Practices Act – FCPA, UK Bribery Act, OECD Anti- Corruption Convention, SAPIN II, etc.). Regulators require companies to establish an effective Compliance Program, and non-compliance with obligations defined by law imposes significant sanctions on companies. One of the obligations companies needs to adhere to is vetting their third parties (customers, suppliers, business partners, agents, agents and others) and to ensure that they respect the same standards. This is achieved through education of third parties, information on obligations through codes for third parties and other relevant policies and procedures, periodic audits, but also through contractual provisions which specify the obligations of third parties to comply with relevant laws and internal regulations of international companies. In this way, through contracts, these international laws extend to the territory of  Serbia.

Some of the obligations that international companies require from Serbian companies through contracts are:

• Rules on ethical business behavior including compliance with anti-corruption laws and standards (FCPA, UK Bribery Act, OECD Anti-Corruption Convention, etc.)
• Obligation to sign and comply with the Supplier Code
• Obligation to perform employees background check
• Obligation to keep confidential information and share it on need-to-know basis
• Obligations related to personal data protection
• Rules related to publishing information on cooperation (posting references on the website, business networks, publications in the media, etc.)
• Prohibition of work with competing companies / obligation to obtain approval for engagement with competing companies
• Obligations in the field of security (physical security measures, IT resource security measures)

The reason why international companies protect themselves in this way through contractual clauses is because international companies may be prosecuted in their home country for the activities of their third parties in Serbia or any other country.

It often happens that international companies, in addition to introducing these contractual clauses, do not carry out mandatory education of third parties on their obligations in the field of ethics and integrity, and domestic companies do not pay enough attention to contractual provisions, since contracts contain a significant number of annexes and refer to documents that are not physically attached to the contract (such as relevant laws and internal regulations that are usually published on the company’s website where they are regularly updated). Thus, breach of contractual obligations may even occur without partner companies from Serbia being aware of the breach.

Therefore, it is very important that both domestic and international companies and their representative offices in Serbia commit more to education in this area and ensure adequate understanding of the obligations arising from international regulations and standards in the field of integrity.