50| 2020 Sustainability Report |As clear as water. Sustainable and transparent governance Supplier assessment In its relationships with suppliers, partners and contractors, In 2020, Aqualia began with the update of its supplier Aqualia starts from the basis of shared understanding, official approval system that foreseeably will begin built on the pillars of integrity, transparency and mutual to be applied in 2021 with the aim of achieving full trust; these allow for easy communication and generate implementation in 2022. stable relationships over time. Selection of suppliers Assessment follow-ups System for official approval Non-financial criteria Aqualia conducts internal Aqualia controls and supervises Before considering the client satisfaction surveys suppliers' compliance with economic factors for each in order to gain in-depth regard to financial, technical operation, Aqualia takes understanding of the and data protection and criteria for quality, ethics and performance of all its suppliers compliance issues. sustainability into account. during operations. Depending on the assessments These assessments are then made by the purchasing Compliance used as selection criteria for and technical departments, future purchasing processes. strategic suppliers are An exhaustive analysis is selected and a list of specially made of compliance with monitored suppliers is drawn the requirements for the up for them to be supervised operation, taking its volume or even vetoed. and prior knowledge of the supplier into account. Utmost severity Major operations with new suppliers require utmost severity and may involve a visit to their installations.