📅 May 25, 2021 | Geneva, Switzerland
🔷 When one of the world's most important business organizations dedicated to sustainability received a complaint about the Flinto Case, what did it do?
In May 2021, I contacted Peter Bakker, President and CEO of the WBCSD – World Business Council for Sustainable Development, an international organization bringing together major companies committed to sustainable development, including Eni.
My message questioned the gap between the company's public commitments to ethics, transparency, and integrity and its conduct regarding the irregularities I reported in 2001, when I worked at Agip do Brasil.
At the time, I emphasized that my battle with the Italian oil giant was approaching 20 years, during which different Eni Chairmen and Boards of Directors had become aware of the Flinto Case.
I also mentioned the proposal for an amicable settlement requested by Eni itself in November 2020 through the Italian Ambassador to Brazil, the monitoring of the case by NCP Brazil (OECD - OCDE), and the absence of a truly independent, impartial, and transparent investigation into the facts originally reported.
📌 And how did the WBCSD react?
On May 25, 2021, Federico Merlo, Managing Director & Senior Management Team at the WBCSD (currently at PwC), sent a message to Stefano Goberti, an Eni executive, copying Peter Bakker and other professionals from the organization and the company.
The WBCSD representative explained that Peter Bakker had received a communication from me describing an approximately two-decade-long dispute with Eni.
He then made a straightforward request:
📌 Could Eni provide more information about the background of the case and clarify whether any action was being taken to resolve it?
The executive also emphasized that the WBCSD's objective was to understand the situation without making any prior judgment about the merits of the dispute.
🔷 Yet another stakeholder requesting clarification from Eni!
This request was not an isolated incident.
Before that, Eni had already received inquiries from the AIIA | Associazione Italiana Internal Auditors, critical shareholders, CDP Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, and the Italian Embassy in Brazil.
And these initiatives had one element in common: institutions and stakeholder representatives were seeking to understand what had actually happened in the Flinto Case and what measures the company had taken.
📌 But what did Eni tell the WBCSD?
Documents that later came to my attention revealed that Eni repeatedly used a "Corporate Narrative" in its responses to requests for clarification.
Instead of presenting an independent investigation into the irregularities reported in 2001 and the retaliation that followed, the company focused its arguments on the whistleblower's actions, the lawsuits, and allegations that my communications were damaging its reputation.
This narrative eventually incorporated references to discussions concerning a possible amicable settlement and the monitoring of the Flinto Case by NCP Brazil.
The Corporate Narrative could change its tone. But the essential question remained unanswered: where were the results of an independent investigation into the reported facts?
🔷 Corporate sustainability cannot exist only in words!
The WBCSD promotes commitments related to sustainability and corporate responsibility. But these commitments must also be demonstrated in how companies handle complaints, respect their stakeholders, and protect those who report potential irregularities.
After all, what is the point of a company proclaiming values of ethics, transparency, and integrity if, when questioned about the conduct of its executives, it fails to provide explanations supported by verifiable evidence?
And one more question: did the WBCSD consider Eni's explanations satisfactory?
🔴 INSTEAD, ENI SHOULD AUTHORIZE A TRULY INDEPENDENT, IMPARTIAL, AND TRANSPARENT INVESTIGATION INTO THE FLINTO CASE!
🔷 NEXT EPISODE: AFTER MORE THAN 110 EPISODES, WHAT WOULD ENI SAY TO ITS STAKEHOLDERS?
❎ Learn more:
1️⃣ Correspondence between the WBCSD and Eni — May 25, 2021:
🔹 Original document in English: https://lnkd.in/dHBqQ_79
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