53 Vodafone Group Plc Annual Report 2024
Strategic report
Governance
Financials
Other information
Our approach When new suppliers tender for work, they are asked to demonstrate compliance to policies and procedures that support safe working, diversity in the workplace, and to address carbon reduction, renewable energy, plastic reduction, circular economy and product life cycle which account for up to 20% of the overall evaluation criteria. Commitments made by our suppliers are assessed against our own purpose strategy with respect to diversity and inclusion (5%), the environment (5%) and health and safety (10%) in categories where there is a safety risk. We have included purpose criteria in all tenders since FY22. We continue to assess risk during our onboarding process by using a Supplier Assurance Risk Management (SARM) system for new suppliers in critical-to-business areas. The system uses logic to qualify suppliers in high risk areas that are material to our business, namely cyber security, data privacy, corporate security, environment, antibribery, responsible sourcing, health and safety and payment card industry. Any identified risks require an independent policy expert to approve suppliers before they are onboarded and if necessary to establish a mitigation plan. Our requirements are backed up by risk assessments, audits and operational improvement processes. To date, we have improved the supplier qualification process across 19 countries and entities using a risk-based assessment that reviews compliance of any new suppliers before being onboarded to Vodafone. We will continue the rollout across local markets throughout the course of FY25 provided Workers’ Council approval is available. We report on our approach to preventing modern slavery and human trafficking in our business and supply chain in our Modern Slavery Statement. Governance The Chief Financial Officer (‘CFO’) oversees our supply chain and is a member of the Executive Committee and Board. Reporting to the CFO, the Chief Executive Officer of the VPC is responsible for the implementation of our Code of Ethical Purchasing. Progress is reported regularly to the VPC Board. Procurement is a highly centralised function within the business, with the majority of our external spend managed by the VPC. This enables us to maintain a consistent approach to supplier management and makes it easier to monitor and improve supplier performance across our markets. Business integrity We aim to ensure that our business operates ethically, lawfully and with integrity wherever we operate as this is critical to our long-term success. Tax and economic contribution As a major investor, taxpayer and employer, we make a significant contribution to the economies of the countries where we operate. In addition to direct and indirect taxation, our financial contributions to governments also include other areas such as radio spectrum fees and spectrum auction proceeds. Tax transparency Click to read our Modern Slavery Statement: vodafone.com/modern-slavery-statement Our tax report sets out our total contribution to public finances on a cash-paid basis for both 2022 and 2023. In 2023, we contributed, directly and indirectly, €9.3 billion (€12.1 billion including Italy and Spain) to public finances worldwide, compared with €8.2 billion (€9.9 billion including Italy and Spain) in 2022. The year-on-year increase was due to €0.4 billion corporate income tax payments across Europe, as well as €0.3 billion indirect taxes and €0.3 billion other telecommunications specific economic contributions, such as payments for the right use spectrum. In 2023, we paid over €2.6 billion in direct taxes, nearly €1.3 billion via telecommunications
specific economic contributions, and collected nearly €5.4 billion in corporate income taxes for governments around the world. Maintaining trust in the creation and execution of our tax strategy, policies and practices is absolutely core to our approach to tax, as is our focus on transparency. We disclose our financial contributions to governments at a country level, as we believe this is an important way to demonstrate that it is possible to achieve an effective balance between a company’s responsibilities to society as a whole, through the payment of taxes and other government revenue-raising mechanisms, and its obligations to shareholders including that they understand our approach to taxation, policies and principles. The information we share aims to help our stakeholders understand our approach, policies, and principles. We share our views on key topics of relevance, including the latest on the taxation of the digital economy, as well as by publishing our OECD country-by-country disclosure, as submitted to the UK’s tax authority, HMRC. In addition, we also publish how our disclosures compare to the B Team tax principles and the requirements of the Global Reporting Initiative. Our tax report for 2024 will be published by the end of the financial year, following the submission of our tax returns and payment of all applicable taxes. Click or scan to watch a summary of our approach to taxation: investors.vodafone.com/videos Anti-bribery, corruption and fraud At Vodafone, we support and foster a culture of zero tolerance towards bribery, corruption or fraud in all our activities. Our anti-bribery policy Our policy on this issue is summarised in our Code of Conduct and states that employees or others working on our behalf must never offer or accept any kind of bribe. Our anti-bribery policy is consistent with the UK Bribery Act and the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and provides guidance about what constitutes a bribe, and prohibits giving or receiving any excessive or improper gifts and hospitality. Any policy breaches can lead to dismissal or termination of contract. Click to read more about our tax and economic contribution to public finances: vodafone.com/tax
Click to read our Code of Conduct: vodafone.com/code-of-conduct
Click to read more about our approach to Anti-bribery and corruption: vodafone.com/sustainable-business/operating-responsibly
Facilitation payments are strictly prohibited, and our employees are provided with training and guidance on how to respond to demands for facilitation payments. The only exception is when an employee’s personal safety is at risk. In such circumstances, when a payment under duress is made, the incident must be reported as soon as possible afterwards. We regularly monitor our anti-bribery programme to ensure it is implemented through conducting periodic monitoring activities, risk assessment, policy compliance reviews and internal audits. To support our approach, we are also a member of Transparency International UK’s Business Integrity Forum.
Note: 1. Includes suppliers to our discontinued operations in Italy and Spain.
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