| Ensuring integrity
Finance rolls out a formal code of
ethics for all members of the organization
Code of Conduct for Finance Employees
The Boeing Finance Organization
enacted a code of ethics that applies to all members of the organization.
Following is the text of the
code:
To ensure complete and accurate financial records and reporting,
all Finance employees will
- Act with honesty and integrity, avoiding
actual or apparent conflicts of interest in personal and professional
relationships.
- Provide constituents with information that is accurate,
complete, objective, relevant, timely and understandable.
- Comply
with rules and regulations of federal, state, provincial and
local governments, and other appropriate private and public regulatory
agencies.
- Act in good faith, responsibly, with due care, competence
and diligence, without misrepresenting material facts or allowing
one's independent judgment to be subordinated.
- Respect the confidentiality
of information acquired in the course of one's work except when authorized
or otherwise legally obligated to disclose. Confidential information
acquired in the course of one's work will not be used for personal
advantage.
- Share knowledge and maintain skills important and relevant
to constituents' needs.
- Proactively promote ethical behavior as
a responsible partner among peers, in the work environment
and the community.
- Achieve responsible use of and control over all assets
and resources employed or entrusted.
This code of conduct is complementary,
and does not replace responsibilities all employees have as outlined
in existing Boeing Ethics and Business Conduct and the "Expected
Conduct for all Boeing Employees" procedures. |
Concerns over good corporate governance
and financial accuracy and transparency led in part to the passage of
the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which calls for measures to help protect
the interest of investors and maintain the integrity of the U.S. securities
markets. Among the stipulations set forth by this bill, which becomes
law this summer, publicly traded companies such as Boeing are required
to have a formal code of ethics for all senior financial officers.
After considering what
needed to be done to comply with these regulations, the Boeing Finance
organization
drafted
a code of ethics—and elected to have it apply to all Finance employees.
The Code
of Conduct for Finance Employees (see box at right) complements but does not
replace ethics responsibilities all Boeing employees share. These existing
standards are
spelled out in the existing Boeing
Ethics and Business Conduct
and the "Expected Conduct
for all Boeing Employees" procedures. Instead, said Chief Financial Officer Mike
Sears,
announcing the code in a message
to the Finance Organization, "The additional guidelines for our organization
explicitly reinforce expectations that all team members ensure complete and
accurate financial records
and reporting." Among behaviors the code
champions:
- Acting with honesty and
integrity;
- Providing constituents with information that is accurate, complete,
objective, relevant, timely
and understandable; and
- Proactively promoting ethical behavior as a responsible
partner among peers, in the work environment and the community.
In his message,
Sears noted that the Finance Organization already has been adhering to the
behavior specified in the code.
"Still, it's really important all of us spend time discussing the code
with our teams to
make sure we all understand it," Sears
said in his message to teammates. "Maintaining the recognized integrity of Boeing
Finance processes is important in ensuring
the success of the enterprise. It's up to
all of us."
|
