Evaluation
The main features of the process for evaluating the Board of Directors, its Committees and the individual Directors are described in paragraph II.3.4 of the Bekaert Charter.
In 2009 the Chairman conducted a performance appraisal of the three Committees to ascertain the Directors’ appreciation of the Committees’ proceedings and the interaction of the Committees with the full Board.
Internal control and risk management systems
Bekaert’s internal control framework consists of a set of group policies for the main business processes, which applies Group-wide. Bekaert has different tools in place to constantly monitor the effectiveness and efficiency of the design and the operation of the internal control framework to support the financial reporting. A mandatory training on internal control is organized for all new employees and a self-assessment tool is in place allowing management teams to evaluate themselves on the internal control status. The global internal audit department monitors the internal control situation based on the global framework and reports to the Audit and Finance Committee at each of its meetings.
The Bekaert Group Executive regularly evaluates the company’s exposure to risk, its potential financial impact and the actions required to monitor and control the exposure.