Prevention of bid-rigging

Under the philosophy of being faithful to our stakeholders as set forth in the “MAEDA Corporate Conduct Charter,” which was established in 2005, we strive to take the initiative in fair and free competition and appropriate dealings. We also seek the thorough implementation of our corporate ethics and to maintain an appropriate relationship with politics and administration. Concerning bid-rigging in particular, in September 2020, we revised ten articles we had set up as the “MAEDA policy for prevention of bid-rigging” and have striven to prevent it more effectively. In accordance with the revised policy, we also revised the “rules to prevent bid-rigging,” which employees should observe, to make the contents of the rules more effective. For example, we specified the rule of leaving one’s seat when a topic that was suspected of involving bid-rigging arises in a meeting with other companies in the same industry.

The personnel in charge of the Civil Engineering Division, Building Division and Management Innovation Division have discussions, review related rules as appropriate, and discuss policies for the training on compliance with the anti-monopoly law, etc. for officers and employees which is conducted throughout the year, such as the methods and contents of training (deployment in annual training and at branches.)
After obtaining the approval on the policies from the Board of Directors, we conduct compliance and prevention of bid-rigging education. If an employee violates the anti-monopoly law, the disciplinary committee will promptly conduct an investigation of facts and take disciplinary action.

In the previous fiscal year, we re-issued a reminder that suspicion of bid-rigging alone would pose a risk to the company, and a person performing the act may receive a penalty or punishment inside or outside the company. Subsequently, we conducted e-learning on the compliance and prevention of bid-rigging for all employees (3,752 people) (with a 100% participation rate in the e-learning). In this e-learning, whether an employee who received the e-learning program has acquired knowledge is verified by a level test. All employees who received the e-learning program shall submit a written pledge on the prevention of bid-rigging. In addition, for all officers and employees in charge of sales at the head office and branches, we conducted the “training on compliance with the anti-monopoly law” by a lawyer specialized in anti-monopoly laws, including the education for cautioning about not only bid-rigging, but also obstruction of bids. In addition to the above training, we also provided training programs on the prevention of bid-rigging at the training sessions for the fifth-year employees and about compliance with laws and regulations at branches. In the previous fiscal year, our company was not subjected to any criminal accusations or cease-and-desist orders concerning bid-rigging.