Establishing robust ethical conduct on a complex infrastructure project

GoodCorporation has worked for a large oil and gas major to help embed the company’s ethical standards across a new exploration site involving multiple third parties as well as contractors and subcontractors.

To avoid possible reputational damage caused by breaches of ethical conduct, the managing organisation in this complex infrastructure project needed to apply a consistent approach to upholding its own high ethical standards. High-risk areas in such a project include recruitment, procurement, the payment of commissions labour conditions and health and safety.

GoodCorporation worked with the organisation to implement a two-stage approach to embedding robust ethical practices.

Stage one involved the development of adequate policies, practices and procedures to mitigate these risks, including the drafting of appropriate clauses and auditing rights into third party and employment contracts.

Stage two comprised a detailed on-the-ground review of the project offices and sites of multiple contractors and subcontractors. This enabled us to consider the extent to which policies and processes were in line with those of the managing organisation. It also allowed us to establish the level of oversight needed by each layer (managing organisation, contractor, subcontractor etc.) over their suppliers to ensure that policies were being followed and that systems and processes were fully embedded across the project, particularly in high-risk areas.

GoodCorporation conducted the on-site review over several weeks, spending 2-5 days with each party. A detailed management report was produced which graded all the practice and procedure areas to identify strengths and weaknesses. The report also identified where different supplier tiers needed greater oversight and monitoring. A list of remedial actions was also prepared.