Digiteq Automotive is committed to engage in responsible, qualified, and transparent business management focused on the company’s long-term success and the protection of stakeholder interests.
Digiteq Automotive corporate policy rests on principles enshrined in the “Digiteq Automotive Code of Conduct”. The Code of Conduct in place is based on the application of generally accepted social values.
Integrity
At Digiteq Automotive, we believe that only with lasting, dependable integrity and compliant behaviour will our gain and strengthen the trust of the staff, customers, shareholders, business partners and the general public to the company. Acting with integrity is an essential part of our Digiteq Automotive strategy and is thus on par with the quality of our products, our financial KPIs and aims and the satisfaction of our customers.
One of the tools aimed to increasing integrity awareness among the employees and management of Digiteq Automotive and its importance for our business activities is the Together4Integrity Program. Among other things, it includes initiatives supporting our aim to become a role model when it comes to integrity and compliance.
You will find further information regarding the topic of integrity at the Volkswagen Group under the following link: https://www.volkswagenag.com/en/sustainability/integrity.html (contents only in English).
Compliance
Digiteq Automotive staunchly believes that economic success is sustainable only if everyone sticks to the rules. Therefore, particular attention is given to the obligation to comply with applicable laws and/or internal rules, ethical and other rules adopted voluntarily as standard both by the Volkswagen Group and Digiteq Automotive. Compliance principles reach beyond business relations to embrace activities both within and outside the company. This is the Digiteq Automotive’s way of signalling loudly and clearly that its conduct will echo the requirements of legal and ethical rules on competition, finances and taxes, environmental protection and employee relations, including the safeguarding of equal opportunities.
The Compliance & Integrity department at Digiteq Automotive, in cooperation with the Governance, Risk & Compliance department at ŠKODA AUTO, provide consulting on all compliance-related issues, and they also implement appropriate measures to raise awareness of the intrinsic value of compliance among the workforce and third parties. For the purposes of the above-mentioned consultancy, there is the compliance@skoda-auto.cz e-mail address available for both Digiteq Automotive employees and partners.
Digiteq Automotive Code of Conduct
The Code of Conduct sums up fundamental principles underlying the conduct of Digiteq Automotive employees, and it is instrumental in responding to legal and ethical challenges. The Digiteq Automotive’s reputation is a core value relying on the resolve shown by all employees of the company to act in keeping with our Code of Conduct and all applicable laws and internal rules. The principles of conduct described here have become part and parcel of the corporate culture at Digiteq Automotive.
Digiteq Automotive Code of Conduct here:
Whistleblower system
Complying with applicable laws and internal rules has top priority both at Volkswagen Group and Digiteq Automotive. The Whistleblower system offers a discreet and reliable opportunity to report the violation of applicable laws or internal rules at the company to its employees, business partners and other persons who may have a concrete suspicion of such behaviour. The Whistleblower system acts according to the principles of protection, fairness, and trust. These principles apply equally to whistleblowers as well as those affected. The aim of the Whistleblower system is primarily to avoid possible damages that might affect our company, employees, and business partners in case of applicable laws and/or internal rules violations.
Handling of the reports at the company follows the below listed principles
- The whistleblower can submit the report at any time and in any language.
- The whistleblower can choose from various options for submitting the report (see below).
- The whistleblower can submit the report anonymously or give his/her name.
- Strict confidentiality is maintained throughout the entire process of report handling (“need to know” principle).
- An investigation will be initiated only after the facts stated in the hint are taken into account and the reasonable suspicion of applicable law and/or internal rules violation is carefully assessed.
- Reports are investigated fairly, quickly, and in a sensitive manner.
- The person who submits the report, has the right of the protection of the whistleblower on the part of the company.
- Affected persons are treated fairly and presumed innocent as long as long as a rule violation is not confirmed.
- A Serious Regulatory Violation is an action that significantly affects the interests of the Volkswagen Group or one of its companies, in particular interests of reputation or financial interests, or that significantly violates the ethical values of the Volkswagen Group.
- Management employees are obliged to report any suspicion of a Serious Regulatory Violation immediately to the relevant offices.
- The abuse of the whistleblower system will not be tolerated and is considered as a Serious Regulatory Violation
The following options are available to the whistleblowers for submitting their reports (at any time and in any language):
- Personally to Central Investigation Office Volkswagen*
Central Investigation Office (K-ICW) Porschestraße 1, 384 40 Wolfsburg (centrum) - By post to the address: Central Investigation Office Box 1717 38436 Wolfsburg (downtown), Germany
- By telephone to toll-free number +800 444 46300 (availability 24x7, incl. the possibility to communicate in Czech)**
- If your local telephone provider does not support the toll-free service, you can call the following number: +49 5361 946300 (not a toll-free number).
- By e-mail sent to io@volkswagen.de
- By secure online reporting channel: https://www.bkms-system.com/bkwebanon/report/clientInfo?cin=22vwgroup16
- By contacting the Ombudspersons (external lawyers)
- The Ombudspersons are external neutral lawyers appointed by the Volkswagen Group and are available to the whistleblowers for accepting the concerns.
- The services of Ombudspersons are available in different languages, incl. Czech.
- An Ombudsperson as a lawyer is the subject to the duty of confidentiality and therefore hands over only the information, which the whistleblower wants to hand over to the Central Investigation Office.
- The identity of a whistleblower is handed over by the Ombudsperson only if the reporter explicitly requests so. The Ombudsperson never investigates the reports by himself/herself; he/she only examines the reports with respect to their legitimacy and credibility.
You will find the contact details of the Ombudspersons on the following websites:
- English: www.ombudsmen-of-volkswagen.com
- German: www.ombudsleute-der-volkswagen-ag.de
You will find further information regarding the Central Whistleblower System at VW Group on the following website:
https://www.volkswagenag.com/en/group/compliance-and-risk-management/whistleblowersystem.html.
*) In such case please write to e-mail address io@volkswagen.de in advance in order to arrange a meeting.
**) If there occur technical problems with the availability of the hotline, please use the other listed reporting channels to report your concern to the Investigation Office.
Risk management
For the long-term success of Digiteq Automotive, it is crucial that it can identify, anticipate, and manage the risks and opportunities arising from its activities in a timely manner. The Digiteq Automotive’s risk management structure is built on a common principle of risk management within the Volkswagen Group.
The aim of the risk management system is to identify individual potential right at the beginning, assess how great they are, take appropriate countermeasures, prevent any potential damages, and eliminate any risks that might jeopardise the company existence. As the likelihood and impact of future events is subject to a certain degree of uncertainty, even the best risk management system cannot foresee all possible risks, and even the best and well-proven the internal control system cannot fully prevent unforeseeable events either. At the same time, economic and regulatory changes can offer opportunities that the company then strives to seize so that it is able to consolidate and build on its competitive position.