A
SOCIETY UNDER VERY CLOSE SUPERVISION
Like
all collective management societies in France, SACEM’s management
and activities are subject to regular supervision as provided for by
law or by its Articles of Association. Transparency is a cardinal
principle in SACEM governance and operations.
Few private
enterprises are subject to such stringent regular oversight; today,
there are ten levels of surveillance, each different and separate
from the others. This guarantees our management’s efficiency,
fairness and transparency.
Yearly external controls:
- Auditor: like
many private companies, SACEM accounts are checked by an
independent auditor who submits an annual report to the SACEM
General Assembly.
- Auditing Committee for Collective Management Societies (ACCM): SACEM
is audited every year by this independent committee dedicated to
collective management societies, housed at the Cour des Comptes
(Court of Audit) and chaired by a Court magistrate. The Auditing Committee report is public and available on the website of the Cour des Comptes. No other private company is
audited by the Cour des Comptes.
- Ministry of
Culture: it validates and checks all statutory changes made by
SACEM, which must also submit to it its annual accounts.
- Detailed report
on the sums from the private copy levy used for Cultural Action:
the law on Freedom of Creation, Architecture and Heritage (July
2016) requires collective management societies to publish a
(publicly available) yearly report accessible to all in the form
of a single database detailing all funding allocated to
festivals, artists’ residences and self-produced albums,
corresponding to 25% of the private copy levy.
Internal controls:
- Board of Directors: as the
Society’s executive body, it validates all decisions concerning
SACEM activities, in particular negotiation of the Society’s
repertoire representation contracts and royalty distribution
rules. It validates the budget and controls the CEO’s operational
activities and SACEM departments.
- Supervisory Board: it controls
the activities and mission completion of the Board of Directors
and the CEO, whose performances it evaluates through a report
submitted each year to the General Assembly. It also controls the
Society’s resources and expenditure.
- Ethics Committee: it averts,
identifies, manages and controls all situations of conflicts of
interest ― actual or potential ― confronting SACEM Directors,
members of the Supervisory Board and Statutory Programming
Committee and the CEO. It receives the annual declarations of
interests provided for by the Intellectual Property Code and
guarantees that the rules of eligibility for the Board of
Directors, Supervisory Board and Statutory Programming Committee
are respected.
- Transparency
Report: it is published every year starting in 2017 and sent to
all SACEM members, to provide them with accurate detailed yearly
accounts.
- Auditing and
Internal Control Department: it proceeds every year with audits
and other controls of the activities of the Society’s various
departments and ensures that all the association’s procedures, regulations and charters are observed during
the implementation of these activities, with particular regard for ethical business practices.
This department also undertakes the Data Protection Officer’s missions and watches over the protection of personal data processed by the Sacem, as required by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
- Committees:
made up of SACEM members elected by the General Assembly every
year, SACEM committees assist the Board of Directors in checking
the Society’s activities and helping in decision-making.
For more information on governance at SACEM and the new Articles of
Association voted on 1 March 2017: consult the complete file on Governance,
ethics and transparency (MagSacem n°97).