This statement is published by Aura Group in accordance with the requirements of the Modern Slavery Act and details our approach in addressing human rights and modern slavery risks across our business and supply chains.

Modern slavery is a morally reprehensible act and crime that deprives a person's liberty and dignity for another person's gain. Every company is exposed to varying levels of risk of being involved in this crime through its own operations and its supply chain. This impacts millions of people globally, including many in developed countries, who are being kept and exploited in various forms of slavery.

1.  About Aura Group

Aura Group is a financial services business providing tailored wealth, funds management and corporate advisory solutions to clients. Aura Group was founded in Australia in 2009. The head office is located in Singapore.

Aura Group’s key operations are in the Asia Pacific region, with offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Singapore.

2.  Our Commitment

At Aura Group, we have a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery and are fully committed to preventing slavery and human trafficking in our operation and supply chain. We have taken steps to tackle modern slavery, as outlined. This statement sets out the actions that we have taken to understand all potential modern slavery risks related to our business, and to implement steps to prevent slavery and human trafficking.

3.  Our Supply Chain

This statement sets forth the commitment by Aura Group to conduct all business in a lawful manner and all employees are expected to adhere to high standards of business and professional conduct.

We establish a relationship of trust and integrity with all our suppliers, which is built upon mutually beneficial factors. Our supplier selection and on-boarding procedures include due diligence of the supplier's reputation, respect for the law, compliance with health, safety and environmental standards, and references. Aura Group procures IT services, hardware and software, professional services and office supplies from reputable service providers.

Aura Group has taken further steps to identify the risk of modern slavery practices in its operations and supply chain primarily having regard to the sector and geographic origin of the products and services it acquires. Given that Aura Group is a financial services business and our employees are finance professionals and/or provide administrative support services, the risk of modern slavery practices within its own operations is considered low.

4.  Our approach

Aura Group recognises the need to review its internal processes to ensure modern

slavery risks are effectively identified and mitigated. Our approach to addressing the risks caused by modern slavery in its business and supply chain will be founded on its capacity to establish robust systems for corporate governance, risk identification and management, policies & procedures, training and awareness, stakeholder engagement, and performance review. The Group upholds human rights principles to ensure that slavery and human trafficking are not taking place within our directly employed workforce as well as any of our third-party service providers and vendors.

4.1  Corporate Governance

Aura Group’s internal polices reflect our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity in all business relationships, and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure slavery and human trafficking is not taking place. We are committed to the highest principles of personal and professional conduct which includes a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery. Aura Group is led by our Board of Directors which is the main governance body of Aura Group. The Board is responsible for ensuring that there is a satisfactory process in place for managing strategic, risk management, ethical and corporate social responsibility issues, including modern slavery.

4.2  Risk Identification and Management

On at least an annual basis, we commit to conducting a risk assessment of our supply chain by taking into account: 

  • The risk profile of individual countries based on the Global Slavery Index
  • The business services rendered by the suppliers
  • The presence of vulnerable demographic groups
  • A news analysis and the insights of labour and human rights groups

This assessment will determine our response and the risk controls that we implement as part of our oversight of outsourcing vendors.

4.3  Policies and Procedures

Aura Group operates the following policies for identifying and preventing slavery and human trafficking in our operations:

  • Whistleblowing Policy – our Whistleblowing Policy applies to all who work at Aura Group including employees, contractors and other third parties acting on our behalf. We encourage all who work at Aura Group to report any suspicion or concerns of suspected wrongdoing or dangers at work, including slavery or human trafficking, without fear of reprisals, and it forms part of our mandatory training. We provide a confidential channel to protect the identity of whistle blowers.
  • Code of Conduct - our code encourages employees to do the right thing by clearly stating the actions and behaviour expected of them when representing Aura Group. We strive to maintain the highest standards of employee conduct and ethical behaviour when operating abroad and managing our supply chain.

Recruitment and employment practices:

  • Our recruitment procedures include mandatory documentation checks to ensure that all employees are over 16 and eligible to work in the applicable territory.
  • As part of our recruitment policies and procedures we only use reputable recruitment firms and comply with all relevant local laws and regulations.
  • We review market related pay and rewards annually.
  • We are committed to fair employment practices for our staff.

4.4  Training and Awareness

Aura Group will raised awareness of modern slavery issues by conducting Professional Development on the policy, adding our Modern Slavery statement to our website.

All employees are trained on an annual basis to be vigilant to the signs and dangers of modern slavery and we encourage where necessary speaking up and utilising our Whistleblowing policy.

All new staff are also required to read and acknowledge our Anti-Corruption and Bribery Policy which provides further context around the impact of unethical behaviour on our company and the people we do business with.

4.5  Stakeholder Engagement

Aura Group conducts due diligence on all new suppliers during on-boarding and on existing suppliers at regular intervals. This includes:

  • Assessing risks in the provision of particular services
  • Auditing the suppliers, and their health and safety standards, labour relations and employee contracts
  • Requiring improvements to substandard employment practices
  • Sanctioning suppliers that fail to improve their performance in line with our requirements

We require all suppliers to attest that:

  • They don't use any form of forced, compulsory or slave labour
  • Their employees work voluntarily and are entitled to leave work
  • They provide each employee with an employment contract that contains a reasonable notice period for terminating their employment
  • They don't require employees to post a deposit/bond and don't withhold their salaries for any reasons
  • They don't require employees to surrender their passports or work permits as a condition of employment