The main tasks of the ombudswoman of Siemens Healthineers AG („SHS“) are to receive and process information relating to SHS she may receive.

The individual tasks are as follows:

• The ombudswoman receives information from informants relating to irregular business practices (compliance breaches) within the company, whereby such informants may be employees of SHS, employees of an SHS-company or third parties (externals). Informants can provide the ombudswoman with information free of charge.
• The ombudswoman will immediately assess conclusiveness and plausibility of any information received and – if possible – whether the informant can be considered trustworthy. Furthermore, she will generally make a legal pre-assessment. Whenever possible, the ombudswoman will immediately inform the company about the receipt of any information.
• The ombudswoman will record the information in a transparent and comprehensible way (if necessary, in anonymous form) and will forward such information to SHS – Compliance Governance without any delay.
• If necessary, Compliance Governance will have the issue submitted by the ombudswoman investigated by an appropriate internal body or by external experts. The investigations must not have the purpose to investigate or find out the informant’s identity. Compliance Governance shall properly inform the ombudswoman about the course and the results of the investigation.
• The ombudswoman will be available to receive further information from the informant and will, if necessary, forward additional questions arising from the internal investigations to the informant. 
• The ombudswoman will let the informant know about the result of the investigations and measures taken to the extent possible. In this respect, she will also take account of the interests of the employees affected, as well as of the relevant data protection regulations.
• If requested, the ombudswoman will report to the audit committee of the SHS supervisory board.
• The prohibition of any retaliatory measures against complainants and informants contained in the Business Conduct Guidelines also includes any employees and third parties contacting the ombudswoman.

Non-disclosure 

• In her capacity of an attorney, the ombudswoman is subject to the statutory and professional non-disclosure regulations relating to the performance of her work. 
• This applies to the relationship with SHS, and particularly to the relationship with the informant, with whom an attorney-client relationship is established (see below).
• The ombudswoman must not disclose information relating to any facts she obtains knowledge of in the exercise of her mandate to third parties.
• Furthermore, the ombudswoman undertakes that the identity and professional environment of potential informants will not be disclosed to SHS. In this regard, and inasmuch as the identity of the informant is concerned, SHS irrevocably waives any claims for information or surrender against the ombudswoman (Art. 675 para 1 in conjunction with Art. 666, 667 of the German Civil Code (BGB)).
• With regard to the foregoing paragraphs, Art. 138 of the German Criminal Code, as well as those cases in which the informant has demonstrably and deliberately made false statements towards the ombudswoman shall constitute an exception and limitation relating to the non-disclosure of information to SHS.

Legal and contractual relationships

• In the first place, a legal and contractual relationship under this agreement exists between SHS and the ombudswoman. 
• This contractual relationship serves as the basis of the rights and obligations agreed upon herein. Informants will become part of this relationship and will have their own claims against the ombudswoman and SHS. In relation to the ombudswoman, informants are entitled to and may be interested in establishing an attorney-client relationship for exchanging information and receiving an initial legal assessment. This is expressly approved by SHS. The parties assume that the ombudswoman may receive dual mandates due to her position as an ombudsperson, and that there is no conflict of interest based on her paramount interest in receiving information. SHS fully recognizes the informants’ interest in maintaining confidentiality as an integral part of their own attorney-client relationship. 
• SHS deliberately waives any possible right to the disclosure of information to the extent necessary and irrevocably approves that the ombudswoman does not disclose to SHS any information she might receive from informants asking her to treat such information as confidential. This does not affect No. IV (4) of this agreement.
• The ombudswoman is generally free to choose her own form of communication with informants and in consulting them and is not bound by instructions of SHS.

Submitting of reports / information

You can reach Dr. von Coelln, ombudswoman of SHS, using the following contact details:

tel:       +49 211/44 03 57 78
fax:       +49 211/44 03 57 77

email:  shs-ombudsfrau@hvc-strafrecht.de

Encrypted communication by e-mail is only possible after the encryption certificate has been exchanged between the two email addresses. Therefore, if you wish to submit your message in encrypted form by email, you would first need to send Dr. von Coelln a short email to which she can reply for the purpose of exchanging the encryption certificate. Once you have received the response, you can send your message encrypted.

Correspondence is free of charge for you from the first contact to the conclusion of the matter!