WHISTLEBLOWER POLICY
1 DEFINITIONS
Eligible Recipient :
- Whistleblowing Champion;
- An Auditor of BMW (including internal and external auditors);
- Senior Manager of BMW;
- a Whistleblower’s legal practitioner for the purposes of obtaining legal advice or representation in relation to a Reportable Matter;
- ASIC, APRA or another Commonwealth body as prescribed by whistleblower legislation; or
- any other person delegated in writing by the Whistleblowing Champion to receive disclosures.
Reportable Matter: An issue or conduct of BMW or an Employee that the Whistleblower has reasonable grounds to suspect is misconduct or an improper state of affairs or circumstances.
Misconduct includes: fraud, negligence, default, breach of trust and breach of duty.
An improper state of affairs or circumstances may indicate a systemic issue that the relevant regulator should know about to properly perform its functions. It may also relate to business behaviour and practices that may cause consumer harm.
By law a Reportable Matter also includes conduct which is:
- a danger to the public or the financial system;
- a breach of the law that is punishable by imprisonment 12 months or more;
- prescribed by regulation in relation to Whistleblower protection; or
- a breach of the following legislation (or a related legislative instrument):
- the Corporations Act 2001;
- the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001;
- the Banking Act 1959;
- the Financial Sector (Collection of Data) Act 2001;
- the Insurance Act 1973;
- the Life Insurance Act 1995;
- the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009; or the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993.
For BMW Australia Ltd: CEO, CFO & General Managers
For BMW Sydney Pty Limited: Dealer Principal and General Managers
For BMW Australia Finance Limited: CEO, CFO & General Managers
A Whistleblower can be an individual who currently or has formerly held any of the following roles with BMW:
- Employee;
- dealership (including their Employees);
- supplier of goods or services (including their Employees);
- contractor or consultant (including their Employees);
- spouse, de facto, relative or dependant of any of the above; or
- dependant of a spouse or de facto of any of the above.
Whistleblowing Champion:
BMW entities each have appointed Whistleblowing Champions who are responsible for ensuring and assessing the integrity, independence and effectiveness of this policy and investigating disclosures made under it.
Unless otherwise nominated the relevant Whistleblowing Champions are:
Group Compliance Officer Whistleblowing@bmw.com.au
Group Compliance Officer Whistleblowing@bmw.com.au
Head of Compliance Whistleblower@bmwfinance.com.au
2 DISCLOSURE PROCESS
The below summarises the Whistleblower disclosure process to the Whistleblowing Champion:
Process: Making a disclosure
Description: Whistleblower to contact the Whistleblowing Champion (recommended at first instance) or other Eligible Recipient to raise a concern they have about a Reportable Matter.
Section of policy: 2.2
Process: Preliminary Review
Description: Whistleblowing Champion to conduct a Preliminary Review to determine whether the matter falls within this Policy and if an investigation is required.
Section of policy: 2.3
Process: Investigation
Description: Whistleblowing Champion to initiate an investigation to establish the facts, including interview of relevant individuals, gathering of records etc.
Section of policy: 2.4
Process: Outcome
Description: Appropriate action to be taken, which may involve a further investigation and remediation of the misconduct, disciplinary action or reporting the matter to an external body.
Section of policy: 2.5