Business Ethics

Since founded in 1913, SCG has conducted business in accordance with the Business Philosophy, which SCG employees always uphold. “Adherence to Fairness, Dedication to Excellence, Belief in the Value of the Individual, and Concern for Social Responsibility”. These ethical core values are the cornerstone of the company in conducting business in accordance with the guidelines for sustainable development and the principles of corporate governance. SCG is committed to creating social value, developing products, services and solutions with eco-friendly innovations, and fostering economic growth through fairness and transparency.

Having to expand the business with sustainable growth during the transition to a low-carbon society in the midst of volatility in the economy, environment, and modern society has strengthened SCG’s commitment to operating its businesses under the sustainable development principles through ESG 4 Plus, which is Net Zero – Go Green – Reduce Inequality – Enhance Collaboration Plus Trust through Transparency.

SCG has applied GRC (Governance, Risk Management and Compliance) to management under the supervision of the Board of Directors and top executives as part of its efforts to achieve sustainable development goal in accordance with the ESG. In addition, SCG always works to ensure that its data integrity and transparency are conducted in compliance with the ESG international reporting standards to establish stakeholder’s trust towards SCG business operation.

As a result, SCG encourages its employees at all levels, both in Thailand and Abroad, to recognize

the GRC concept, understand their work goals, and be able to assess and know the risks, work in compliance with rules and regulations, and constantly apply the GRC concept at works in order to promote desirable behaviors at the workplace and in daily life.

Target

  • The coverage of the Ethics e-Testing passed by employees 100 %
  • Becoming an internationally-recognized model for corporate governance.
  • Achieving full compliance in all operations.
  • Achieving zero corruption.
  • Promoting trade competition.

Strategy

  1. Regularly foster knowledge and competency on corporate governance among the Board of Directors and top executives to enable them to serve as role models for SCG employees.
  2. Formulate policies, code of conduct, and guidelines for executives, employees, and suppliers, revise SCG’s corporate governance principles and SCG Code of Conduct to align with current regulations, international standards, and stakeholder expectations.
  3. Assess and audit SCG’s Anti-corruption efforts, using a preventive system consisting of ethics tests, risk management and internal control (operational units, support and compliance units, and auditing units) in accordance with the Three Lines Model, corruption case studies and a whistleblowing system that is accessible to stakeholders.
  4. Communicate and organize the Code of Conduct training for corporate governance divisions, employees, contractors, and suppliers on a regular basis to foster a culture of transparency.

Raising Good Governance, SCG Code of Conduct, and GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance) Principles Awareness​

The Board of Directors and top executives promote the fostering of corporate governance and SCG Code of Conduct knowledge and awareness and encourage the use of GRC principles in understanding the targets of assignments, in fostering risk awareness and conducting risk assessments, and in complying with relevant rules to ensure strict adherence among all personnel. SCG Code of Conduct is available as an electronic document in both Thai and English on the Business’s website. Additionally, it has been translated into Indonesian, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Lao to support employees in SCG’s subsidiaries across these countries. The Business also actively communicates and provides training on the SCG Code of Conduct to ensure that employees, including contract staff, understand and adhere to its principles in a manner suitable for their respective business environments.​

To this end, the Company regularly organizes activities for employees at all levels through media from their first day of employment and has included it as one of the key factors in the annual employee evaluation. This is to ensure that SCG’s business operations are guided by fairness and transparency. Key activities can be summarized as follows:

  • Promoting awareness and understanding of SCG Code of Conduct and GRC principles through PR and learning materials, such as by creating a website on GRC Intranet / SCG Code of Conduct Intranet, disseminating GRC VOICE e-Newsletters, SCG GRC e-Rulebook, and ESG Guideline on MD Guidebook, and providing an additional channel for employee inquiries via e-mail.​
  • Communicating tone at the top to employees to advance compliance with SCG Code of Conduct, policies, and guidelines and encourage employees to recognize the importance of whistleblowing upon detecting violations, creating e-learning programs as well as developing PR materials and organizing activities building awareness among employees and enabling them to apply it to their daily life in Thai, English, and Local Languages.​
  • Enhancing the GRC Helpline, SCG has made it accessible via the Intranet Portal and mobile phones, providing employees in Thailand and overseas with a reliable channel to consult experts on Governance, Risk, and Compliance procedures. Additionally, the Risk Assurance Map has been developed and is continuously refined to assess and optimize the roles and responsibilities of those involved in risk management, in alignment with the Three Lines Model. This evolving tool ensures that operations remain efficient, well-structured, and free from redundancy in managing risks.

Business Ethics Training and Evaluation through Ethics e-Testing

In 2023, SCG administered “Ethics e-testing” for the ninth consecutive year. Divided into three levels according to the roles and responsibilities of the employees’ level, the e-testing tests employees on their knowledge of ethics, SCG’s 4 Core Values, Code of Conduct, and Anti-corruption Policy. Employees at all levels would be assessed to ensure that they understood how to implement the policy. In 2023, the test items were adjusted for high-risk professional groups, such as procurement, government affairs, and sales and marketing.

Additionally, all employees completed the Ethics e-Testing, with a 100% pass rate. The answers given were also analyzed, so that common misunderstandings among employees could be rectified. The tests are reviewed every year to ensure they are up to date with potential risks. In addition to SCG Code of Conduct and SCG Anti-corruption Policy, the test covers the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA), Integrated Governance, Risk, and Compliance (Integrated GRC) and SCG’s ESG 4 Plus concept.

Practices on SCG’s Corporate Governance

The Board of Directors compiled knowledge and practices in management passed down from generation to generation and proven to be in alignment with the corporate governance principles. They were codified into SCG’s corporate governance handbook, firstly published in 2003. Last updated in 2020, the booklet is now also published as an e-Book on the Company’s website.

SCG Compliance Policy

On November 20, 2017, President & CEO of SCG, announced SCG Compliance Policy in writing in Message from the CEO, which was communicated to all employees across the organization, in order to elevate the Company’ s compliance. The policy requires SCG’s directors, executives, and employees to respect and comply with the law and affirms the Company’s intolerance of all illegal transactions. To lay a foundation, the First Line is tasked with establishing foolproof procedures for managing compliance risks, with the Second Line serving as support in putting this system into practice by promoting knowledge, understanding, and awareness among personnel, providing advice and establishing control measures consistently. In addition, the policy also sets out to foster compliance consciousness as part of SCG’ s organizational culture to prevent risks that may occur to SCG, its directors, executives, and employees, which will lead SCG towards stable, balanced, and sustainable growth. 

Policies in All Countries Where SCG Operates

Since 2017, SCG formulated three major policies and guidelines related to legal compliance to raise awareness and establish guidelines for legal compliance in every country with SCG’s business in order to elevate the level and efficiency of compliance.

  1. Anti-trust policy
  2. Insider trading policy
  3. Disclosure policy

Anti-trust

Applying SCG Compliance Management System (CMS) to compliance with trade competition laws in order to ensure that the executives and employees understand and are capable of fully complying with them as well as to put in place an efficient monitoring system.

SCG and its employees have never been involved in a lawsuit or accused of violating trade competition laws and have never been penalized or fined for non-compliance with trade competition laws. Furthermore, no internal complaints regarding violation of trade competition policies or guidelines have been filed. 

Accentuation of the Executive’s Roles

Encouraging all directors to serve as role models for the executives and employees regarding corporate governance compliance and adherence to SCG Code of Conduct. Activities were organized to allow the Company’s directors and high-ranking executives to perform their roles to the fullest.  

The Ethics e-Testing and e-Policy e-Testing

SCG utilizes an Ethics e-Testing and e-Policy e-Testing as part of a preventive measure to assess, examine, and create an understanding of ethics in employees. The training and testing on Ethics e-Testing and e-Policy e-Testing are conducted annually to instill knowledge and awareness in employees at all levels and ensure that they are able appropriately apply and put into practice SCG’s 4 Core Values, Code of Conduct, Bribery & Corruption, Anti-Corruption Policy, effective use of technology to protect business from cybersecurity threats, and the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA).

The e-Policy training and testing focusing on key cybersecurity issues related to prevent IT system failures and major information security and cybersecurity incident.

The year 2023 marked the ninth consecutive year of SCG Ethics e-Testing and the seventh for e-Policy e-Testing, both of which all SCG personnel are required take, followed by an analysis of responses and clarification for thorough and accurate understanding among employees at all levels. The tests are reviewed every year to ensure they are up to date with potential risks. This year’s test items were adjusted for high-risk professional groups, such as procurement, international affairs, and sales and marketing. All SCG employees who took the test obtained a passing score. In addition, the answers given were also analyzed, so that common misunderstandings among employees could be rectified. The tests are reviewed every year to ensure they are up to date with potential risks. In addition to SCG Code of Conduct and SCG Anti-corruption Policy, the test covers the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA), Integrated Governance, Risk, and Compliance (Integrated GRC) and SCG’s ESG 4 Plus concept.

All employees are mandatory required to acknowledge SCG code of conduct and take an Ethics e-Testing which consists of training module and test module on a yearly basis to ensure their acknowledgment, awareness, understanding, and proper application of the Company’s policies. For the test module, employees should pass all criteria of all chapters, it is mandatory to get score 100% for all employees. Ethics & SCG e Policy e-Testing, which is part of the employee performance evaluation linking with Learning Management System (LMS) of Human Resource Management. In 2023, Totally participated and passed with 100%.

All employees in relevant positions must past the SCG e-Policy e-Testing (20 questions) and Ethics e-Testing as;

  • Operator, and Supervisor 1 & 2 for Basic level (20 questions)
  • Supervisor 3 & 4 for Apply level (10 questions)
  • All Management level up for Advance level (10 questions)

Anti-Corruption Practices

SCG attaches great importance to corporate governance, including anti-corruption. The Board of Directors has approved a regular review of an anti-corruption policy, brought together divisions with expertise in each area of corporate governance, and tasked them with improving and recommending good practices. The anti-corruption practice is part of the SCG Code of Conduct, which is a fundamental basis for SCG employees’ conduct and has become a corporate culture through communication and training to employees, including those in subsidiaries, to promote compliance. All employees must comply with SCG’s principles of corporate governance, SCG’s 4 Core Values, Code of Conduct, Bribery & Corruption, and the Anti-Corruption Policy. According to SCG regulations, failure to comply may result in disciplinary action, and legal penalties will be imposed if such a breach is also illegal. In addition, all employees have conducted mandatory annual signoff through “Ethics e-Testing,” in which all employees must learn, test, and pass all questions.

According to the notification of the National Anticorruption Commission (NACC) called “Guidelines on Appropriate Internal Control Measures for Juristic Persons to Prevent Bribery of State Officials, Foreign Public Officials, and Agents of Public International Organization,” SCG regularly conducts risk indicator analysis and assessments of bribery & corruption risk, which is considered one of the compliance risks. SCG has established a proactive and preventive system, prescribed risk mitigation and control measures, identified responsible individuals, implemented monitoring measures, and developed methods for reviewing and evaluating risk management. These measures serve as guidelines for preventing corruption among SCG employees at all levels. The company’s Board of Directors has approved an operation in accordance with the NACC’s notification, in agreement with the Audit Committee, and the President & CEO of SCG has communicated such matter via “Message from CEO” to all employees. SCG’s Top Executives have also accentuated this subject on a regular basis to reinforce the Tone of the Top culture.

In 2021–2022, the SCG Code of Conduct and SCG anti-corruption policy were revised to ensure clarity regarding activities involving high risks of corruption. To ensure that government employees do not use financial support for bribery, create conflicts of interest, or pay for either direct or indirect facilitation, SCG has clearly defined guidelines and prohibitions for engaging in transactions with government agencies, including facilitation payments.

The details of the definition and prohibition of facilitation payments are shown in the SCG Code of Conduct pages 32–33, under “3. Anti-Corruption” and SCG Anti-Corruption Policy page 4, under “Rules of Practice 3.3 Facilitation Payment”.

Since its first certification in 2013, SCG has been recertified as member of the Thai Private Sector Collective Action Against Corruption (CAC) every three years, recently on March 31, 2022. The CAC certification criteria integrated the framework of the United Kingdom’s Bribery Act which is consistent with the principles of ISO 37001 Anti-bribery Management Systems. In addition, SCG has continued to carry out various anti-corruption initiatives, including the formulation of anti-corruption practices in compliance with ISO19600 for the Company or units (First Line) with high risk of corruption to use as guidelines in a systematic procedure, with the advice and guidance of the supporting unit (Second Line) and with the Internal Audit Office (Third Line) assessing the efficiency and effectiveness in accordance with the Anti-corruption Policy. To instill confidence among the Management Team, the Audit Committee, and the Board of Directors. The President & CEO has communicated to the Management Team and all employees to comply with the notification of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC). As the High-Level First Line, management personnel are required to perform risk assessment, establish appropriate measures, promote, communicate, and comply with the Anti-corruption Policy. The Internal Audit Office is responsible for conducting workshops on the Anti-Corruption Compliance Checklist for high-risk units in order to assess risks and establish corruption prevention measures as well as for use as guidelines for examining and assessing the effectiveness of internal control. In addition, SCG has expanded the scope of its anti-corruption operations to cover its business partners and encouraged them to participate in the CAC SME Certification by Thai Private Sector Collective Action Against Corruption.

Certified Companies of Thailand’s Private Sector Collective Action Coalition Against Corruption

Whistleblower Program

SCG has rendered a dedicated channel for whistleblowing, operated by an independent unit of offense, and established a policy on protection and fairness for whistleblowers, which will provide opportunities for employees either verbally or via the SCG Intranet Portal and for external stakeholders via whistleblowing.scg.com to report or inform of any violations or irregularities related to SCG’s business operations at all times.

The report can be either in Thai, English, Vietnamese, Indonesian, and Khmer. Written reports can be submitted either via post or e-mail. SCG has laid out clear procedures for the intake of reports, from the confidential gathering of evidence and the establishment of an independent fact-finding working group and investigation committee to the sanctioning and reporting of investigation results. Furthermore, the system will notify the whistleblower of the receiving report within 24 hours, enabling them to follow up on the results. As such, this system will further promote ethical business conduct and sustainable development.

In terms of security, two-factor authentication as well as a separate server independent from other operations with restricted access only to relevant parties are used to maintain security and prevent the leakage of information to parties involved as well as ensure confidentiality and protect the whistleblower in accordance with the Whistleblowing Policy.

Complaint Investigation

In 2024, a total 47 cases (total number of investigated cases 37 cases (including 15 pending cases from the previous year) involving non-compliance with laws, the Company’s regulations, the Anti-corruption Policy, Corporate Governance Policies, SCG 4 Core Values, Employee Code of Conduct, were filed through SCG Whistleblowing System for external parties and employees, no case related to the Anti-corruption Policy, Antitrust Policy, The Insider Trading Policy, or disputes with competitors, furthermore, there have been no complaints or lawsuits regarding human rights violations against this year. The damages were insignificant.

Contributions to Organizations 

SCG has been working closely with both international and national trade associations or tax-exempt groups, and others to increase awareness on the trends and needs, and to participate in sharing its views and advice. SCG provides supports in term of monetary value and qualified personal from SCG. 

SCG remains politically neutral, and set policy which does not give financial or any kind of supports to any political party, political group, or candidates in local, regional or national levels or person with political influence or lobbying or interest representation or similar and other categories (such e.g. election campaign, spending related to ballot measures, voting activities, or referendums).

In addition, SCG establishes definition and prohibition of facilitation payments in Anti-corruption policy which means any action that may influence or motivate an unfair decision making and treatment.

Largest Contributions & Expenditures

In 2023, SCG continues to drive sustainable business growth in accordance with ESG while mitigating the impacts of climate change, maximizing resource efficiency, enhancing plastic waste management, and implementing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as supporting the long-term net-zero transition into a low-carbon economy with the goal of restricting global temperature rise to 1.5oC above pre-industrial levels. Detail of our contributions can be found in the table below:

SCG has continued to be members in the associations and organizations which may propose recommendations on country development and industries in various aspects to the government for consideration. However, in practice; they do not have influence on political campaigns. The top seventh organizations contributed by SCG are Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW), Thai Cement Manufacturers Association (TCMA), World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA), The Federation of Thai Industries, Global Compact Network Thailand, and Thailand Management Association (TMA).

The objective is support them in achieving their missions of creating and supporting public policies and regulations and sustainable development actions. In particular, initiatives that need to be accelerated in building a network of cooperation, such as climate change adaptation and transition to a low-carbon economy, a circular economy, and health & safety, in order to achieve tangible results. SCG does not provide support to influence any organization or represent a stakeholder in that organization’s operations.

DOCUMENT DOWNLOAD

SCG Code of Conduct
Supplier code of conduct
SCG Anti-corruption Policy
SCG Anti-trust Policy
Whistleblowing Policy
SCG Whistleblower System
Disclosure Policy
SCG Guidelines on Appropriate Internal Control
SCG Contributions to Organization
Tax Reporting and Effective Tax Rate