Acting with integrity is at the heart of our culture, at all levels of our company.
Our company’s rigorous corporate ethics program promotes and enforces doing the right thing, whether it relates to our financial statements and business practices or the workplace behaviors of individual employees. Ethics and corporate integrity are cornerstones of how we do business.
Electric utilities comprise one of the nation’s most heavily regulated industries, and the laws and regulations that apply to our company can be complex. Regulators, elected officials, community leaders, customers, competitors, investors, the news media and advocacy groups all pay close attention to what we do and how we do it – and we strive to maintain the trust and confidence that they have in us. A key part of maintaining that confidence is building and sustaining a work culture that promotes accountability, transparency, high performance and a sense of pride and service among employees.
Launched in the early 1990s, our ethics program is managed by our Audit Services Department. Our Code of Ethics identifies principles and standards of conduct that all employees, contractors and members of the board of directors are expected to follow. It defines the behaviors essential to our success and is crucial to establishing and maintaining an ethical culture at our company.
This program is governed at the corporate level by the Corporate Ethics Committee, which is composed of department managers from the Progress Energy Service Company and the chairs of the ethics committees of Progress Energy’s major subsidiaries. The Corporate Ethics Committee is chaired by Frank Schiller, senior vice president of Compliance and general counsel, who is responsible, along with other company executives, for ensuring compliance with the Code of Ethics and legal and regulatory requirements relevant to all facets of our business.
We communicate information about our ethics program and Code of Ethics through facilitated and online training sessions, companywide publications and electronic media, leadership development courses, and a dedicated ethics Web site on our Intranet. The site features ethics program contact information, frequently asked ethics questions, brief ethics scenarios, items available in the corporate library and other training material.
We offer employees a 24-hour telephone line administered by an independent company. The Ethics Line provides a confidential and anonymous way for employees to submit ethics-related questions or report suspected Code of Ethics violations without fear of reprisal. Allegations of Code of Ethics violations are investigated, and, if substantiated, management and the Human Resources Department jointly determine the appropriate disciplinary action. Discipline can range from counseling to termination.
In the event of serious allegations regarding accounting, internal controls or auditing matters, the Audit and Corporate Performance Committee of our board of directors conducts a special review. These allegations could include complaints regarding senior management or complaints of any unethical or criminal activity regarding fraud, accounting, internal controls or auditing matters that relate to the fair and accurate presentation of information in our financial statements.
Among other activities in 2008, our company’s Code of Ethics publication was updated to reflect new workplace firearms legislation in Florida. Promotional business cards featuring the Ethics Line phone number were produced for sharing with employee audiences. An Ethics Program overview also was incorporated into our internal leadership training courses. In addition, all active employees and contractors with computer access were required to complete an online, scenario-based training module on information technology security and ethics.
Ethics performance and trends
In 2008, we received 306 allegations regarding the Code of Ethics through the Ethics Line, management referrals and the ethics program post office box. Following appropriate investigation, 141 of these cases were substantiated as violations. The most frequent substantiated allegations involved the inappropriate use of company resources, harassment and integrity of records and other information.
Our company’s ethics committees closely monitor the program trends, subject matter of the reported allegations, substantiated cases and remedial actions. Our benchmarking data show that we are in line with other utilities and companies of comparable size in terms of categories and total number of allegations reported annually.
The enforcement of our ethics program ensures that we deal with issues fairly and properly, and we also take reasonable steps and respond to violations in such a way that prevents similar offenses in the future. Acting with integrity is a vital part of our reputation in the marketplace and in the communities we serve.
Employee satisfaction surveys provide another benchmark of our ethics program performance. The 2008 employee survey revealed a positive ethics environment at Progress Energy, with nearly 90 percent of employees responding favorably that their supervisors and the people with whom they work act with a high degree of integrity.
