Case study: How True Group fights corruption
True Group is the first integrated telecommunication and technology digital service provider in Thailand and a leading developer of technological innovations, with the goal of enabling Thai people to gain access to useful information sources, entertainment content, and convenient telecommunication services anywhere, anytime. Accordingly, True Group is determined to maintain strong ethical and anti-corruption practices Tweet This!, as it believes they are genuinely beneficial to its business.
This case study is based on the 2018 Sustainability Report by True Group published on the Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Disclosure Database that can be found at this link. Through all case studies we aim to demonstrate what CSR/ ESG/ sustainability reporting done responsibly means. Essentially, it means: a) identifying a company’s most important impacts on the environment, economy and society, and b) measuring, managing and changing.
Abstract
True Group is committed to strict compliance with Thai anti-corruption laws, with the Board of Directors, the management, and employees each having the duty to apply and support measures to combat corruption, both directly and indirectly. In order to fight corruption True Group took action to:
- provide anti-corruption training
- set up grievance and communication channels
- organise an anti-corruption campaign
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With this case study you will see:
- Which are the most important impacts (material issues) True Group has identified;
- How True Group proceeded with stakeholder engagement, and
- What actions were taken by True Group to fight corruption
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What are the material issues the company has identified?
In its 2018 Sustainability Report True Group identified a range of material issues, such as data privacy & cyber security, network availability, customer relationship management, business performance and growth. Among these, fighting corruption stands out as a key material issue for True Group.
Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:
Stakeholders must be consulted in the process of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.
Key stakeholder groups True Group engages with:
Stakeholder Group | Method of engagement |
Employees | · Annual business vision session · Social Media/ E-mail · Annual Report/Sustainability Report (website) · Recommendations and/or complaints · Employee Engagement Survey (once per year) |
Customers | · Customer Service Centre · Direct communication with customers · Social Media/E-mail · Annual Customer Satisfaction Survey · Recommendations and/or complaints |
Business Partners
| · Annual Meeting · Training for Business Partners · Social Media/E-mail · Recommendations and/or complaints · Annual Report/ Sustainability Report (website) |
Community and Society
| · Sustainability Report (website) · Social media/E-mail · Recommendations and/or complaints · Contact numbers for emergency at base stations · Organizing activities with the communities |
Competitors and Counterparts in the industry | · Annual Report/Sustainability Report (website) · Recommendations and/or complaints
|
Suppliers
| · Annual Meeting · Training for Suppliers · Social Media/E-mail · Recommendations and/or complaints · Annual Report/Sustainability Report (website) |
Shareholders and Investors
| · Investor Quarterly Meetings · Sustainability Report (website) · Social Media/E-mail |
Creditors
| · Sustainability Report (website) · Social Media/E-mail · Recommendations and/or complaints |
Government Agencies
| · Listening and exchanging ideas regularly · Organizing government activities · Social Media/E-mail |
Media | · Press Conference · Press Release · Social Media/E-mail · Annual Report/Sustainability Report (website) |
NGO and Civil Societies
| · Annual Report/ Sustainability Report (website) · Social Media/E-mail · Collaborations on projects and activities · Recommendations and/or complaints |
How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues
To identify and prioritise material topics True Group carried out in-depth interviews with external stakeholders, obtaining their comments and suggestions.
What actions were taken by True Group to fight corruption?
In its 2018 Sustainability Report True Group reports that it took the following actions for fighting corruption:
- Providing anti-corruption training
- In 2018, True Group’s Fraud & Cyber Crime Department organised training courses on corruption prevention and management of debts and financial affairs. These trainings were provided 81 times with a total of 1,750 participants, including technician teams and their managers, sales employees and sales management teams based in Bangkok and other regions, and management teams of True Shop, Truesphere, and True Branding Shop in Bangkok, as well as regional offices. The focus of the trainings was on new employees, True Group employees and business partners’ employees to prevent corruption and give advice on cases of potential corruption. True Group also collaborated with Charoen Pokphand Group to announce a “No Gift Policy” and a set of guidelines for gift giving and receiving. The Board of Directors, executive management, and employees are expected to use their judgment and to apply the policy and guidelines when receiving or giving gifts as a way to foster relationships with customers, business partners and stakeholders while maintaining transparency within the organisation.
- Setting up grievance and communication channels
- True Group has established a policy to report offences and to protect whistle-blowers (Whistleblowing Policy) and has also set up grievance channels, including the process of handling information or complaints and whistle-blower protection measures, where only assigned employees with the duty to investigate each case can have access to the relevant information. The Group’s Audit Committee has the responsibility to manage each case and report to the Board of Directors, while True Group has also established measures to provide remedy to the parties who have suffered losses or whose rights have been violated, in case the wrongdoing has resulted in damages to any relevant stakeholder. Additionally, True Group provides various channels for communication with the Company for complaints, inquiries, concerns, and suggestions. From the results of assessment in 2018, True Group discovered that 0.48 percent of total employees violated work regulations and were required to enter the assessment process. More than half of the cases were bribery of corporate money/properties, and the rest were forgery for personal gain. Those cases were carefully assessed with fairness and transparency, to make sure appropriate disciplinary action was taken.
- Organising an anti-corruption campaign
- In 2018, True Group, Anti-corruption Foundation, and partners organised a music video contest called “Chor Sa Ard Anti-Corruption 2018” to raise awareness on anti-corruption through songwriting. This contest invited students and the general public to demonstrate their creativity through music videos with an anti-corruption message. There were 132 submissions from all over the country, with 26 submissions from the general public and 106 from students. Ten submissions came through to the final stage and were publicly shared through various media channels of the Charoen Pokphand Group, Anti-Corruption Foundation, and True Group’s channels such as True Vision, True4U TNN24, online social media, Facebook, Chor Sa Ard Anti-Corruption, and www.trueplookpanya.com.
Which GRI Standards and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been addressed?
The GRI Standards addressed in this case are:
1) Disclosure 205-2 Communication and training about anti-corruption policies and procedures
2) Disclosure 205-3 Confirmed incidents of corruption and actions taken
Disclosure 205-2 Communication and training about anti-corruption policies and procedures corresponds to:
- Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
- Business theme: Anti-corruption
Disclosure 205-3 Confirmed incidents of corruption and actions taken corresponds to:
- Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
- Business theme: Anti-corruption
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References:
1) This case study is based on published information by True Group, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original, please revert to the original on the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Disclosure Database at the link:
http://database.globalreporting.org/
2) https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/gri-standards-download-center/
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