LEGISLATIVE DECREE NO. 231/2001

The Legislative Decree No. 231/2001 (issued on June 8th 2001), has set forth in the Italian law system a peculiar kind of responsibility for juridical persons (companies and associations) in respect of certain criminal behaviors carried out by officers, representative or other individuals committed in the interest or to the advantage of the Company.

One of the sources of inspiration of the Legislative Decree No. 231/2001 are the US Compliance Programs or the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.

The Legislative Decree No. 231/2001 provides for the applicability of several types of penalties: monetary penalties, banning penalties, reputational penalities (publishing of verdict condemning the Person).

The law provides that the company can demonstrate its own non involvement in the crimes, by proving the existence of the following requisites:

  • To have adopted and effectively put in place models of organization (MODEL), suitable management, specific procedures and controls aimed at preventing those relevant crimes;
  • To have created a Surveillance Committee (Organismo di Vigilanza) with independent powers of initiative and control entitled to supervise on the operations granting the observance of the models and the respect of the procedures and the compliance to the law;
  • To prove that the person who has committed the crime did it eluding with fraud the model.

The MODEL is a document showing how the company is organized in order to prevent all the risks related to the activity, showing in particular all the prevention measures, policies, procedures, ethical codes and all control and reporting system in force.

The elements of our Model of Organization, Management and Control according to the Legislative Decree 231/01 are:

  • Specific sections related to specific relevant crimes;
  • The map of the 231 risks (implemented trough a self risk assessment approach);
  • The operating procedures;
  • The disciplinary system;
  • The ethics code;
  • The Surveillance committee as an indipendent board.

The Surveillance Committee must (main responsibility):

  • Control and verify the implementation of the MODEL also trough specific audits;
  • Suggest to the General Director (GD) and to the Board of Directors (BoD) the update of the MODEL, according to the Legislative Decree 231/2001 and to the compliance controls;
  • Report to GD and BoD;
  • Receive and manage compliance informations.

The D.lgs 231/01 provides for the adoption of a suitable disciplinary system aimed at sanctioning the non compliance with the measures indicated in the Model.

The infringements and any consequent penalties (both for employees and not employees) will be normally managed by Human Resources and the Surveillance Committee.

Any People who come to know or just suspect of some violation of law, Model, ethics or company’s procedures must report to the Surveillance committee by a confidential email at the following address:
odv@toscanalifesciences.org

Organismo di Vigilanza
Fondazione Toscana LifeSciences
Via Fiorentina 1 – 53100 Siena