2013 Annual Report
140 Annual Report 2013
SUPPLIER
ASSESSMENT
Materiality
The supplier assessment item in connection with issues such as environmental,
labor, human rights, society and ethics is overseen by the Cost, Organization
and Efficiency Executive Office and this is very relevant for the Bank as we rely
on a wide range of suppliers that can cause a number of impacts. This is why
the Bank performs risk assessment and chain control and monitoring. In fact, the
Bank makes its purchases in high volumes and may be considered an influencer
for suppliers and other chains. This item may affect the Bank's reputation, and is
connected to regulations, laws, international covenants or voluntary agreements
with strategic importance for the Bank and its stakeholders.
Impacts
The Bank has more than a thousand suppliers and as such we must have a careful
management of our chain in order to avoid doing business with companies that
have inadequate social and environmental practices. An ineffective management
in this area may expose the company to reputational risks while strengthening
undesired practices.
The list of the Bank's suppliers includes firms in a number of segments, such
as home builders, transport of valuables, call centers, security firms, and some
of them are deemed to be critical under the social and environmental point
of view.
In 2013, Santander Brazil performed a diagnosis to identify high-impact suppliers
under the social and environmental aspect; this criterion has become integral
part of the supplier classification process beginning in 2014. The impacts we
identified were:
→ Environmental - the heavy use of natural resources; strong emission
of greenhouse gases; waste generation; the risk of environmental fines
and the heavy use of water and energy.
Human rights - bonded or forced labor; child labor;
low ethical standards and corruption.
→ Labor practices - risk of work-related accidents and
inadequate training.
Policies
The process of hiring suppliers who are willing to do business
with the Bank is backed-up by documents which include
topics such as no child labor, no bonded labor and the
principles of human rights, labor laws, environmental
protection, anti-corruption practices and dissemination
of good practices, to name a few.
The Approval Policy: This policy regulates the procedures
needed for supplier registry and approval. High-impact
suppliers are defined as those suppliers who have a high
risk or impact on Santander business. The policy also sets
out the basic technical analyses that will be performed within
the "Corporate Social Responsibility" criterion. This criterion
used the UN Global Compact (human rights, environment,
action against corruption), of which Brazil is a signatory, as
benchmark. The guidelines in this policy, which are available
internally only, were determined by the Santander Group.
The Supplier Relationship Policy: This policy includes
principles such as human rights, labor laws, environmental
protection, action against corruption, and professional
ethics, which must be respected by all our suppliers while
promoting the ten principles of the UN Global Compact.
Other benchmarks used to create this policy are the
legislation in force, and the social, environmental and
ethical performance Indicators embraced by the Bank
such as the Corporate Sustainability Index (the "ISE"),
the Global Reporting Initiative (the GRI) and he Empresa
Pró-Ética Register.
Commitments
Santander Brazil is a signatory of two covenants that
guide the ethical, transparent relationship with suppliers:
the Empresa Pró-Ética Register and the Pacto Empresarial
pela Integridade e Contra Corrupção (the Corporate
Covenant for Integrity and Against Corruption).
Control and assessment mechanisms
Potential suppliers undergo an assessment involving
several steps, including an agreement with social and
environmental responsibility, human rights and ethics,
in order to avoid any risks of occurrences.
In bidding processes, the first step takes place upon
the acceptance, by the supplier, of the Request
for Quotation attachment ("RFQ"). In cases where no
bidding is required, the process begins in the approval
phase. In this phase, suppliers are assessed as to technical,
administrative, legal and social/environmental aspects.
The Bank has in place a supplier rating index, i.e.,
the Índice de Qualificação de Fornecedores (IQF),
applicable to high-impact services such as technology,
security, logistics and the call center. Since the first half
of 2013 every supplier that was hired by the Bank
underwent a background check with the Federal
Government Comptroller-General (the CGU).
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