Brendan LeMoult on Whistleblowing at JTI [Podcast]

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By Adam Turteltaub
[email protected]

These days it seems that most helplines are handled by external providers.  But, not ever company goes down that route.  For Brendan LeMoult, Fiscal Affairs and Anti-Illicit Trade Vice President at JTI, having an internal whistleblower line has distinct advantages.

As he explains via this podcast, the company takes allegations itself and uses an internal investigations group for all its investigations.

Employees are first encouraged to raise issues with line managers or persons they have concerns about.  If that doesn’t work, they have three ways to report anonymously or confidentially.  First, they can log on to an online portal.  Second, the company has about 250 contact persons throughout the company who have been trained to address concerns.  The third option is to come directly to corporate compliance and raise their issue.

Once a concern is raised, the compliance team will examine if the concern is in scope — addresses code of conduct, policies or procedures or violation of law, rather than a routine personnel issue.  If it is in scope the allegation goes to the Business Ethics Committee which decides whether to refer the matter for a full-blown investigation.

The goal of the process is to make sure that the person who raises the concern has the confidentiality/anonymity that they want, and the investigation process has sufficient independence.

Listen in to learn more about the process, including the ongoing reviews of active investigations.

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