Internal Control

We aim to expand the internal control system throughout the entire azbil Group. We are striving to raise the standards of management, administration, monitoring, and the internal control system, while working to ensure proper accounting and stronger governance in the Group as a whole.

Efforts to Build the Internal Control System

In building the internal control system, we have clarified the basic policies governing officers and employees with our Basic Policy on Internal Control System Architecture, and we have disclosed a summary of current operational status.
In fiscal year 2019, we planned our Regional CL Conference to increase the skills of compliance leaders (CL) in charge of compliance education at overseas subsidiaries, and the first session was held for subsidiaries in China and Korea.
We will continue to work towards the construction of an efficient, legal, and highly transparent framework through which to improve our internal control system.

Mechanism to Obtain Employee Opinions and Uncover Internal Problems

The azbil Group has established a reporting and consultation system in order to ensure early detection and handling of problems such as compliance violations and working environments that threaten employees, in order to promote our policies on CSR management and health and well-being management.
The system is accessible to Group company officers and full-time employees, temporary employees and other workers employed at Group companies, and to our corporate partners. It can be used to report legal violations, human rights issues, improper accounting, and other actions and behavior that deviate from the azbil Group’s Guiding Principles and Code of Conduct, violations of internal rules, harassment and other problems related to the work environment. Inquiries involving the personnel system, employee benefits, etc., are also welcome.
In Japan, we also provide consultation on personal issues and concerns employees have through our CSR Hotline.
The utmost consideration is given to protecting the identity of those who report problems or ask for counselling, and to the confidentiality of the information communicated. We have also established rules to protect employees from retribution for contacting these services.
The consultation service is well-known throughout the Group, and two contact sites have been established for reporting and counselling, both inside and outside the company, and anonymous inquiries are accepted. We are working to inform our employees that they can make use of the system with complete peace of mind.
We continue to strive to prevent, discover at an early stage, and correct any wrong-doing, so as to further ensure compliance. At the same time, in order to make this a reporting and consultation system more accountable to realize a workplace where employees can work in a healthy and vibrant manner, we applied to certify our system as a “Whistleblowing Compliance Management System” as defined by Japan’s Consumer Affairs Agency. Accordingly, Azbil Corporation was approved as a certified entity on November 27, 2020.

The Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, J-SOX Internal Control Reporting System, and Strengthened Accounting Standards

We regularly review the scope of assessment, risk, and control in response to changes in the business environment, and are strengthening our efforts to better respond based on the J-SOX Internal Control Reporting System under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act. In addition, we are also gradually deploying a central information system at Azbil Corporation at other azbil Group companies with the goal of efficient and more accurate financial reporting. Moreover, we will continue to provide regular training to improve accounting standards among Group employees around the world, and we are striving to improve the standard of the azbil Group’s internal control system and its reliability by raising the level of accounting and internal control at overseas subsidiaries.

Group Company Management under J-SOX