Ethical conduct

Red Flag and the whistle blower facility (EthicsCall) have been set up to promote ethics, integrity and good governance. Therefore, it is mandatory for every consultant, employee, domain experts, advisors and Board members to adhere, practice and promote the highest standards of ethics and integrity. They will, individually or as a team or as a representative of the company, behave professionally, with integrity and honesty. They will be fair, transparent and accountable for their actions and be consistently held in high esteem by those interacting with them.

Additionally, every Red Flag employee and consultant shall adhere to the code of ethics as laid down by their respective professional institutions conferring academic and professional credentials.

Red Flag expects its employees and consultants to self regulate their behavior in accordance with the above ethical code and will be responsible for its implementation and compliance thereof. Failure to adhere to the Code may attract severe consequences, including termination of employment and referral to the respective professional institutions for disciplinary action under their code of ethics.

Confidentiality of information

Red Flag USP lies in its ability to maintain confidentiality of client data and information made available to it through business associations.

We shall continue to protect, preserve and safeguard valuable proprietary information and other confidential information through a well formulated access management system whereby the information is available on a need to know basis with logs as to when and what information was accessed by each of the employees, consultants or domain experts.

Those engaged by Red Flag are obligated to use the proprietary information only for the expressed purpose for which made available. They are also required to affirm at the time of engagement that all documents, information, correspondence, and contracts in relation to Red Flag and its clients will not be disclosed during or after the completion of the engagement. This affirmation shall be made in a confidentiality agreement to be signed by each of the consultants and employees of the Company.

Please also refer to the Privacy policy of the company. Contact the Senior Executive (Administration) for a copy of the draft Confidentiality Agreement at the time of engagement.

Information technology resources

Red Flag/EthicsCall have taken steps to leverage but responsibly use information technology in pursuance of its business objectives, vision and mission. Red Flag IT resources are either owned or leased and includes servers, network, voice and fax systems, internet connections, software and hardware systems, mobiles and other devices. All information transmitted through or maintained by the Red Flag IT resources are the property of the Company. The company prohibits use of its IT resources for the following purposes:

Red Flag may terminate any user’s access to Information Technology Resources of the company at any time, with or without advance notice. Additionally, it may take appropriate action to stop recurrence of such incidence in future.

Conflict of interest

Red Flag and its division EthicsCall engage consultants, advisors and domain experts in addition to regular employees in a complex requirement of skill sets to deliver oversight services to the clients. It is conceivable that some of those engaged may have had previous or current associations with the clients of Red Flag/EthicsCall. In accordance with our conflicts management policy, we actively seek input of our consultants, advisors, domain experts and employees as regards their potential and current conflicts of interest with specific assignments. The clients too are approached to provide their perception of the conflict of interest the proposed domain experts may have. Persons found to have conflicts of interest are not deployed on the assignment or may be requested to resolve the issue to the satisfaction of all concerned.

As part of the due diligence exercise, background verification with reference to the experience and qualifications of those engaged by Red Flag will be conducted. Red Flag expects of its consultants, advisors and employees to fully disclose either their own conflict of interest in any assignment or that of their immediate family member/s.

Given the nature of our confidential services, it is not possible to lay down either an illustrative or exhaustive list of potential conflicts of interest situations. Managing Director of the Company is responsible to decide on each case of potential or reported conflict of interest case.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Red Flag is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. We do not discriminate on grounds of nationality, age, gender, colour, race, religion, ethnicity, language, caste, creed, economic or marital status or disability.

We operate internationally and hence diversity of our staff and consultants is a key to our success in multi-cultural market environment. We, therefore, actively promote affirmative action aimed at creating opportunities for cultural inclusion, encouraging healthy difference of opinions and inculcating respectful and ethical behavior towards each other.

Towards these goals, our work place recognizes professionalism and positive cultural differentiation and provides the enabling environment to practice non-discrimination.

Gifts & donations

Prevention, deterrence and detection of fraud, corruption and other wrong doings are the main consultancy services provided by Red Flag.

In keeping with the values driven mission and vision, Red Flag and its employees and consultants shall neither receive nor offer or make, directly or indirectly, any illegal payments, remuneration, gifts (except items of nominal value of customary nature), donations or comparable benefits that are intended, or perceived, to obtain uncompetitive favours for the conduct of its business. We shall actively align our business that supports law enforcement agencies, anti-corruption fora, accountability missions and fraud awareness programmes throughout the world to minimize or eliminate all forms of bribery, fraud and corruption.

Environmental Policy

We will continuously endeavor to provide environmentally friendly, safe and healthy working environment for our staff, consultants and associates. We shall be committed to proactively and actively prevent the wasteful use of natural resources in all that we do for a cleaner and healthier environment on a sustained basis. Towards these ends, we shall comply with all applicable environmental laws, regulations and the public policies in every location where we operate. We shall keep ourselves aware of the best practices in environmental matters to fully demonstrate this commitment.

In the context of our management consultancy oriented work, we shall promote following actions to protect environment in our day to day operations. These actions will be construed to meet the minimum threshold and therefore each one of us will continually strive to reach better benchmark in keeping with the current practices.

Office premises:

1. We shall turn off lights, fans, electric appliances and air-conditioners when not required.
   
2. We shall encourage our clients to receive soft copies of our consultancy reports and other communications and thereby avoid printing of material for dissemination.
   
3. We shall actively encourage printing on both sides of the paper to restrict use of paper material.
   
4. We shall opt for recycled paper and reusable options as regards stationary items.
   
5. We shall procure, to the extent economically viable, environmentally compliant ‘green’ products such as computers, servers, monitors and other electronic gadgets for the office.
   

Business conferences:

1. We shall restrict the use of printed material to our delegates to the conferences, seminars, workshops and meetings organized by us.
   
2. Each one of us shall make use of electronic media and gadgets to disseminate views instead of the printed media.
   
3. We shall encourage our guest speakers and chief guests to likewise use electronic media to convey their messages and views.
   

Business Journeys:

1. We shall strive to limit, as far as possible, our carbon foot print by communicating with clients electronically (phone, teleconferencing, video-conferencing) rather than taking actual trips to their premises.
   
2. We shall opt for public transport where feasible or share the vehicle with others to the same destinations.