Fulfillment of obligations to employees, clients, partners and the country

We survived thanks to the coordinated teamwork of employees, management of Ukrainian and global offices and the entire international BDO community. And we keep on operating smoothly all this time that enables us to fulfill our obligations to our employees, clients, partners and the country.

GLOBAL SUPPORT

Within the first days of the russian aggression, BDO Global Office was already urgently discussing two key issues: 1) Support for the Ukrainian office and colleagues in Ukraine, and 2) Further operations in russia and Belarus.

1. Support for the Ukrainian office and colleagues in Ukraine

Within the first weeks of the war, the BDO Response Centre was formed and still operates. As BDO's priority has always been (and still is) the safety of employees and their families located in the country, the BDO Response Centre, that coordinated the response actions during the humanitarian crisis, was immediately called in. For the first 2 months, the response team operated 24/7 on standby to receive calls and provide immediate first aid support to Ukrainian colleagues, such as transportation, accommodation, safe crossing (as far as possible) and financial assistance.

Later, when the active stage of relocation was completed, the BDO Response Center switched to the mode of on-site assistance. The team, which by that time had already been joined by several employees from the Ukrainian office, helped to find appropriate housing for people displaced in Ukraine or abroad, depending on their personal needs and priorities.

Currently, the function of the BDO Response Center is to coordinate with other offices of the network for further support.

In early March (i.e. almost from the onset of the full-scale russian invasion), the BDO network created, within less than a week, a special fund to collect donations from both the BDO global office and many of our BDO member firms and their staff. The fund was used and is still being used to provide humanitarian assistance and support to Ukrainian colleagues and their families, families of BDO employees living in Ukraine, to ensure that BDO in Ukraine operates smoothly.

BDO network on the global level made sure that the Ukrainian office team had IT support, providing the necessary IT tools and licenses and ensuring secure access to the necessary resources so that they could always stay connected. Thanks to such a quick response, we were able to keep working no matter where we were located. Ukraine was definitely in a high-risk zone, but thanks to the fact that all employees located in Ukraine were in more or less safe regions, where there were almost no problems with access to communication and the Internet, most of them returned to work by the end of March. Starting in August, we commenced preparations for the work of our employees in Ukraine in case of attacks on the Ukrainian power system and possible power outages: we developed a business continuity plan, initiated the purchase of uninterruptible power supplies and power banks.

BDO also made sure that colleagues could resume work again, performing projects under temporary contracts with other BDO firms, but with the overall goal of supporting and strengthening BDO in Ukraine.

2. Further operations in russia and Belarus

In early March, BDO announced its position on Ukraine, which is as follows: no BDO firm will work with russian and Belarusian entities under sanctions, BDO has no network firm in russia, BDO excludes BDO Belarus from its global network. BDO member firms are also fully complying with the sanctions, imposed by their respective governments, that hopefully will help put an end to russian aggression in Ukraine.

This is an important decision of the company, which affects the further work of the Ukrainian office, as we, being part of an international company, cannot be associated with the aggressor-countries for further cooperation with Ukrainian companies.

FULFILLMENT OF OBLIGATIONS TO EMPLOYEES AND SUPPORT

No layoffs were made in the company during the war. We looked for options to provide work for every employee, who had the opportunity to work both in Ukraine and abroad: work on current projects, participation in projects of BDO member firms, assistance to colleagues from other departments or retraining to another specialty if the company needed it and an

employee was ready for such changes. Thus, we managed to redirect the necessary resources to other processes and enable our people to stay with the company and keep working. In April, we resumed recruitment and in June, a new colleague joined our cybersecurity team — the first one since the war. Now we are actively recruiting new experts to the team. Current vacancies can be found on the website .

From February 24 until today there have been no delays in the payment of wages. Moreover, salaries were paid ahead of schedule for the first months. The company also provided all employees with additional financial assistance and covered the costs related to the relocation of employees and their families. The total amount of this assistance amounts to almost UAH 10 million, of which UAH 2.6 million are funds from the founder of BDO LLC, Alla Savchenko, and the rest of the assistance is largely covered by the BDO Fund, established in early March. Timely payments have been and are a priority for the company, as we fulfill our obligations not only to our employees, but also to the country: we pay taxes, that are now extremely necessary, in particular, to finance the defense.

To support the psychological well-being of employees of the Ukrainian office, colleagues from BDO Global with the Ukrainian Support Service provided online counseling, where everyone can ask for help 24/7. Such support proved to be of great importance nowadays, as experienced stress sooner or later becomes apparent and qualified support is extremely necessary in this case. The program will run until the end of March 2023 with the possibility of extension if necessary.

We keep on with the Mental Health support program, which was launched during the Covid-19 pandemic. Every 2-3 weeks, professional psychologists conduct online training on how to behave in a particular critical situation.

Also, all professional development programs for employees continue and additional ones are being added. For example, since October 2021, the BDO network has provided free access for all employees of the network to online English language learning platform, which is also used by many BDO employees in Ukraine.

In the company we care about providing our employees with the most comfortable working conditions available during this period and giving them the opportunity to develop and learn new skills even during the war in Ukraine.

FULFILLMENT OF OBLIGATIONS TO CLIENTS AND PARTNERS

Since the first day of the war, we have been in touch with our clients. Given the needs of some clients, some service lines switched to intensified operation than before the war: for example, the Payroll department worked seven days a week for a month. According to the head of the department Valeriya Linevich, 90% of clients submitted requests for calculation and payment of financial assistance and salaries for several months in advance for their employees in the early days of the war. Working day started at 7 a.m. on February 24: the employees of the department did their best to close the periods and provide the relevant regulatory and management reports, including foreign colleagues and offices. At that time, it was really important to calm down the clients' concerns about the potential disruption of services offered by BDO in Ukraine, which our team successfully managed.

The situation was stabilized slightly in late March. Then we personally called all our customers to get to know their situation and to find out how we might help them. Surely, we met our clients halfway, where possible, provided discounts on services and deferred payments under contracts.

Since May, we have already started issuing the first audit reports.

Also, during the whole period, we did not stop payments to all Ukrainian counterparties to ensure the smooth functioning of the country's economy and support of the domestic consumer, as we realized that each company is also trying to fulfill obligations to employees and counterparties, as BDO in Ukraine did.

FULFILLMENT OF OBLIGATIONS TO THE COUNTRY

BDO in Ukraine does not cooperate and does not provide services to companies that are associated with the aggressor country. Our experts have thoroughly checked each client for connections with russia and all information about such connections was provided to the relevant authorities.

Despite the extended deadlines, we still prepared all of BDO LLC's own annual reports on time and submitted them to the regulators. The Integrated Transparency Report of BDO in Ukraine for 2021 was issued on time.

Since the beginning of the war, the company kept paying all taxes to support the state budget and finance defense needs. For six months of the war, the group of companies operating under the BDO in Ukraine brand paid taxes in the amount of UAH 22 million.

On behalf of the company, we donate funds to support the Ukrainian army and volunteers. Apart from that, we provided other financial support to the AFU, including assistance to the units where our employees are defending Ukraine. Mobilized employees were paid a one-time allowance of UAH 50 thousand and even though the payment of the average monthly salary to the mobilized employees was cancelled at the expense of the company, our company keeps paying the average monthly salary to the employees that are currently defending the country.

We also knew that during the war it was crucial to provide jobs for Ukrainian experts so that more people could stay in Ukraine, so we reorganized the Recruitment business line, the main purpose of which was to employ Ukrainian talents in the company for international projects. Thus, we:

• Help Ukrainian experts, who have lost their jobs, to get stable employment in a Ukrainian company, keep paying taxes in Ukraine, to have social security and consume goods and services in Ukraine, supporting the Ukrainian economy;
• Support the country by retaining human resources, as long-term emigration of working-age people can become a disaster for the Ukrainian economy, that cannot rely only on international support.

Our experts are involved in initiatives to rebuild Ukraine. Vira Savchenko, CEO of the company, is a member of the Board of the EBA Ukraine Recovery Committee. BDO in Ukraine is part of the global BDO community that offers the best solutions, shares experience in implementing successful projects and helps to establish contacts with potential investors in Ukrainian business.