Community Investment
We continue to invest one per cent of our pre-tax profits (based on the average of the previous three years' pre-tax profit publicly reported in each of those years) in community programs.
We have established a new UK-based charitable company registered with the UK Charities Commission (BHP Billiton Sustainable Communities) to help us manage our one per cent spend and enhance the programs that follow from this. These funds will be applied to community programs as they are identified and brought forward for funding. Each year, contributions to the charitable company are included in the calculation of the Group's performance against the one per cent target. Expenditure from the charitable company to fund community programs is not included.
During FY2009, our voluntary investment totalled $197.8 million comprising cash, in kind support and administrative costs and includes a $60 million contribution to the charitable company. Despite the global financial crisis, our expenditure on community programs during the year was similar to our expenditure in FY2008.
Our community investment is driven by our desire to improve the livelihoods of people in our host communities. Excluding the contribution to the charitable company, 39 per cent of our expenditure was invested in local communities, 49 per cent regionally and the remaining 12 per cent on programs on a national level in countries where we operate.
We take care to support community investment projects that contribute to long-term sustainable development and do not create dependency. To this end, sites are required to have a process to enable local communities to participate in the development of our community investment strategies and in the associated monitoring of program effectiveness.
We aim to deliver community investment programs in partnership with communities, non-government organisations and government agencies wherever possible. Customer Sector Groups and assets are required to have publicly available guidelines that clearly describe the program's priorities, focus areas and the decision-making process. Our projects are required to be implemented in accordance with the ethical requirements in our Code of Business Conduct.
