By force of the Italian Legislative Decree 231 of 2001, called “Administrative accountability of legal personalities, corporations and firms, even lacking juridical personality, according to Article 11 of Italian Law 300, of Semptember 2000” ,and dealing with the liability of firms who, in case of offences committed by entities functionally linked to them, are subject to a framework of administrative accountability, with the possible consequence of pecuniary and prohibitory penalties, asset confiscation and publishing of the relevant judgment(s).
The aforementioned decree, on its Article 6, introduced the opportunity for a firm to be exempted from such penalties, if this firm shows that:
- “the senior executive organ adopted and efficiently enacted, prior to commission of the act, organizational and management models which are capable of preventing offences of the type occurring;
- the task of overseeing such operations, compliance with the models and seeing to updating of same has been delegated to an organization within the body vested with powers to act on its own initiative and conduct monitoring;
- the persons committed the offence by fraudulently circumventing the organizational and management models;
- there has been no omission or insufficient oversight on the part of the organization referred to in subparagraph b)”.
“Model 231”, when in line with law requirements, is an effective instrument towards reaching its main goal (exempting from administrative liability), as well as bestowing the following benefits upon a firm:
- the creation of an effective control culture;
- the improvement of risk management (detecting risk areas and provision of principles, protocols and procedures allowing to prevent risks and to manage its eventual presence);
- the effective resolution of the conflict of interest between management and stakeholders (realizing a management conduction unfettered by exploitative behaviours);
- safeguarding a firm’s image and reputation (preventing offences and upholding the principles of transparency, ethicality, fairness and respect for the rules).
Achieving these objectives allows value creation and protection.
Assocostieri Servizi possesses a relevant experience concerning the setup of Model 231 and in managing firms along those lines, coupled with a deep knowledge of the unique features concerning tank storages, warranting the firms who would like to implement such instruments the full achievement of their objectives.
1. setup of management models to prevent the commission of offences;
2. duties of a Control Body: the Control Body has, within the workings of “Model 231” a paramount importance. It is therefore critical to give the needed resources for it to perform its functions. Furthermore, its members must fulfil the adequate requisites of autonomy, professionalism and honourability. If this does not happen, the adequacy of the model fails;
3. control models validation for the sector of tank storages;
4. training and information of control and supervision personnel:
information and training (by means of lessons, seminars, classes, and the like) possess a basic importance towards making and keeping the personnel informed and aware of the juridical evolution concerning firms’ liability, as well as promoting a culture of prevention and control making the management of the various aspects and issues connected to “Model 231” easier.