'What's behind your supplier's declaration of conflict free supply chains?', 6 Feb 2015

RCS Global recently completed a second round of conflict minerals audits of Asia based suppliers to review their determination of scope for the country of origin inquiry and validate the declarations made in the Conflict Minerals Reporting Template (CMRT) of the CFSI...[W]e found that referring to the smelter and refinery list as the only criteria to determine risk associated with a supplier is not an effective way to capture risks in the...supply chain...RCS Global found that supplier conflict minerals audits are an effective tool not only to monitor supplier performance, but primarily to highlight opportunities for the SEC issuer to engage with suppliers as well as to identify major gaps in a SEC issuer's own ability to report "DRC conflict free". Furthermore, the audits provide an opportunity to educate suppliers about conflict minerals due diligence...