1. General Conditions of Service performed by companies of the BCVG Group.

 (a) If there is no other written agreement, all of the Company’s operations, including all proposals made and all services rendered, as well as all specified operations performed by any of its associate companies or by any of its agents (hereinafter, all of the listed entities shall be referred to as the “COMPANY”) shall be governed by these General Conditions of Work.
 (b) The Company may perform services for legal entities and private individuals, including for private, public, governmental, international, and intergovernmental organizations (hereinafter referred to as “CLIENTS’) solely on the basis of contracts entered into between the Company and a Client. After entering into contracts, individual aspects of work not governed by the contracts may be governed by the Client’s written instructions to the Company signed by authorized persons. Such instructions may not exceed the limits of or conflict with the Contract.
 (c) Under no circumstances shall the Company accept any instructions from third parties or provide results of work (RW), including reports, certificates, conclusions, or any other written or verbal information concerning the client’s instructions to any third parties whatsoever, except on the written agreement of Client and Company. 
 (d) If trilateral contracts, in accordance with which the Company performs work are concluded, the Client is the second party and user of the results of the Company’s work, and the third party is the object of the work, that is, it provides material assets, real estate, documentation, etc. for inspection and expert examination, then with respect to the third party, the same rules as in Item (c) shall be in effect for third parties, irrespective of which of the parties is the payer under the contract. 
 (e) As a general rule, the Client is always the recipient and user of RW during performance of any operations. In individual cases, including those concerning appraisals or insurance surveys, etc., if the Client is the person requiring the results of the Company’s work for presentation to an organization where the Company is accredited or is the person who has obtained special work licenses or permits, this person shall be obligated to notify the company to this effect. The Company shall make the appropriate note with the name of the final recipient of the RW on the outgoing RW. If the RW are intended to be accessible to an unlimited number of persons, the Client shall be obligated to notify the Company to this effect. In this case, the RW shall be labeled as public. Should the Client fail to fulfill said requirements, the Company shall have the right to recall the RW from the organizations to which the report was provided without consent or publicly withdraw the report.

2. Conditions for Rendering Services

 (a) The Company shall provide services by employing reasonable and sufficient practices and skills and in accordance with the contract conditions and the Client’s personal instructions, confirmed by the Company; or in the absence of such specific contract conditions and instructions, in accordance with the following:
      (1) conditions contained in a standard order form or on a standard reporting form for similar Company operations and/or 
      (2) conditions of important international commercial traditions, customs, or practice, including regulations of various international or local industrial and commercial associations, chambers of commerce and industry, etc. and/or
      (3) conditions that the Company considers appropriate to the task at hand on technical, operational, or financial grounds.
 (b) Any of the Company’s information and RW relating to the results of testing samples shall contain the Company’s opinion solely with respect to those samples that were tested and shall not express any opinion of the Company concerning the quality of the entire lot from which these samples were taken.
 (c) If the Client instructs the Company to monitor the work, processes, or intervention in processes performed or carried out by third parties, the Client agrees that the Company’s task and responsibility shall be limited to being present and making observations during such operations by the third party. Based on the monitoring results, the Company shall send the Client RW containing information on the process or simply confirming the presence of the third party’s intervention, depending on the statement of the task. The Client agrees that under no circumstances shall the Company bear responsibility for the accuracy of the settings or calibration of the devices, instruments, and meters used by third parties, for the accuracy of the methods of analyses used, for the qualifications, actions, or omissions of a third party’s personnel, or for the results of analyses, tests, or other work.
 (d) RW issued by the Company shall include only the facts recorded during its presence at the facility and only within the limits of the instructions provided by the contract.
 (e) If any work associated with property value is being carried out, including determining the presence of mortgage property, - the property itself, being part and parcel of the work project, and its qualitative and quantitative characteristics, as well as documents for this property, may serve as the basis for the Company to establish the facts. Failure to provide the Company with the property itself in full volume and with all necessary requested documents will make it impossible to record such property in the RW. The Company shall request additional documents if it believes that the documents provided are insufficient to reflect the facts.         
 (f) The Company may instruct an agent or subcontractor to perform all or part of the services, and the Client shall authorize the Company to disclose all information necessary for this work to the agent or subcontractor.
 (g) If the Company, in connection with performing work, obtains documents reporting the obligations of the Client and third parties (copies of credit agreements, mortgage agreements, sales contracts, letters of credit, bills of lading, etc.), such documents shall be provided solely for information purposes and shall neither extend nor limit the rights and obligations accepted by the Company. 
 (h) The Client agrees that when performing work, the Company shall not assume any obligations of the Client or third parties, shall not release the Client or third parties from any obligations, shall not substitute for the Client or third parties, and shall not diminish, extinguish, or undertake to release the Client from obligations with respect to any third party or any third party with respect to the Client. 
 (i) The retention period of files in the Company shall be 5 years; and the retention period of samples shall be 3 months. Any longer term storage shall be implemented on the basis of a separate storage agreement with the Client.
 (k) If any pressure is put on the Company’s employees in connection with fulfilling their work obligations, the Company shall take all legal measures to protect its employees, and their lives, health, honor, and dignity. Pressuring the company’s employees includes any actions by persons aimed at changing data of the RW, including offering bribes, presents, and gifts of any kind, arranging a service for the Company’s employees that has not been ordered and paid for by the Company, pressure, threats, etc. Among other things, the Company may immediately inform the Client of such events, recall its employees, and suspend contract work until the situation has been settled.  

3. Obligations of the Client

The Client undertakes:
 (a) to provide the Company with sufficient information, instructions, and necessary documents and powers of attorney in the agreed time (and in any case, not later than 48 hours before commencement of work);
 (b) to provide the Company’s representatives with full access to work projects, including occupancies where work must be performed, as well as to all documentation requested by the company, and to take all necessary measures to eliminate or redress any obstacles to performing the work;
 (c) if required, to provide special equipment and personnel necessary to carry out the Company’s work;
 (d) regardless of whether or not separate requirements are received from the Company, to take all necessary Accident Prevention measures and measures to ensure safety of working conditions, sites, and facilities where work will be performed;
 (e) to inform the Company in advance of any known hazards, actual or potential, associated with performing the work, including risks of the presence of poisonous, harmful, or explosive elements, or material or environmental pollution, or toxins;
 (f) to communicate to the Company any information that becomes known to the Client regarding possible obstacles to performing the work from the part of third persons.

4. Payment for Services

 (a) All prices and rates shall be specified by the company in Russian rubles or in another currency, with an indication of the method for conversion into Russian rubles. All prices and rates shall be shown without VAT, unless otherwise stipulated in the contract.
 (b) Unless other conditions are specified in the contract, the Client shall be obligated to pay not later than within 5 working days of the date of issue of the invoice.
 (c) The Client may not defer payment of the Company’s invoices as a result of any dispute not related to claims against the invoices payable.
 (d) The Company shall prepare and submit documents to the competent court for collecting arrears of all payments more than 90 days overdue.

5. Suspension or Termination of Services

The Company shall have the right to immediately and without liability suspend or terminate services in the following cases:
 (a) the Client’s failure to fulfill any of its obligations under the contract or in relation to these regulations within 5 days of notifying the Client of failure to fulfill its obligations, or
 (b) failure to pay invoices within 30 days, bankruptcy, termination of business by the Client.
 (c) for the reasons provided for in Item 2 (k) of these Regulations.
 (d) failure to fulfill the conditions of Item 1 (e), including recall of already published reports.

6. Liability and Release from Liability

 (a) Limitation of liability
      (1) The Company shall neither be the insurer nor the guarantor of the safety of the Client’s property, and under no circumstances shall it bear responsibility for the quantity and quality of the Client’s property. A Client requiring protection against property loss or damage shall obtain the appropriate insurance.  
      (2) RW shall be issued on the basis of facts, information, documents, and/or samples obtained from the Client and for the Client’s exclusive use. The Client shall be responsible for further RW based actions. Neither the Company nor any of its employees, agents, or subcontractors can be liable to the Client or to any third party for any actions taken or not taken on the basis of these RW, or for any incorrect results caused by providing the company with incomplete, ambiguous, or erroneous data, or by misleading the Company, or by providing false information.  
      (3) The Company shall not be liable for failure to perform services or for delayed or partial performance of services caused directly or indirectly by objective reasons beyond the Company’s control, including the Client’s failure to fulfill its obligations.  
      (4) Under no circumstances shall the Company’s professional liability for any of the Client’s claims exceed a total combined amount equal to 10 times the rate for performing the work from which the claim arose, or the equivalent of 10 000 dollars U.S. in the currency of the country where the claim was filed, but not less than double.
      (5) The Company shall not be liable for any indirect losses, including lost profits.
      (6) Should a claim against the Company arise, the Client shall inform the Company in writing within 30 days of discovering the facts on which this claim is based and then file suit. Whatever the case, the Company shall be released from all liability for these claims if the suit is not brought within one year from the date the Company was informed of an existing claim. 
 (b) Release from liability: The Client undertakes to safeguard the Company and to protect the Company, its officials, employees, agents, and subcontractors from liability in the event of any suits (both existing and threatening the Company) of any third parties in connection with incurred losses, damage, or expenses of any kind, including all legal and concomitant expenses, as well as expenses related somehow or other to performance, putative performance, or nonperformance of any work in the Client’s interests.

7. Other provisions

 (a) If one or several of the provisions of these General Conditions are declared illegal or unfeasible in any respect, such provisions shall in no way affect or derogate the validity, legality, and obligatoriness of executing all of the remaining provisions.
 (b) The Client shall not be entitled (directly or indirectly) to make any offers of employment whatsoever to the Company’s employees during the work performance period, and for a one-year period after completion of the work.

8. Regulatory laws, jurisdiction, and dispute settlement

All disputes resulting from rendering services by the Company shall be considered in the following order:
 (a) If the Company and Client have registered offices in the same country where the work is being performed, disputes may be considered according to the laws and in the courts of this country.
 (b) in all other cases, international disputes shall be subject to consideration in the International Court of Arbitration under the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation in Moscow according to usual procedure of this court and in accordance with the laws of the Russian Federation.

9. Language of the General Conditions

These General Conditions were drawn up in Russian and may be translated into other languages. In the event of any discrepancy, the Russian version shall prevail.

Work principles

1. The principle of independence and impartiality

The company and its staff do not have any personal or business relationships with anybody who has a direct or indirect interest in the results of our research.  The professional judgments and information that the company provides its clients are free from any input of any interested party, and will be based only on reliable facts, objective data, and documents.

      
2. The principle of avoiding conflicts of interests and pressure

Any staff member or manager of the company who has a personal or business relationship with any directly or indirectly interested party, or with any party who could be interested in the results of the company’s analysis, or who has come under any pressure while doing their work, must inform their immediate superior or the Board of Directors, who will then make a decision on transferring the case to another staff member.  If the conflict of interest or the pressure is occurring on a company wide basis or on the level of the Board of Directors, then the company shall refuse to continue working on the case.

        
3. The principle of multiple layers of control

The work of any staff member of the company, in particular the information that they pass-on is checked by a higher ranking manager.  The information and the documents are verified to be correct.  Also, it is made sure that the work that the managers and staff have done on location, meet company principles.

4. The principle of openness in our client relationships

The client will be immediately notified if any problems should arise in completing the work.  The company does not hide any negative information from its clients, nor does it give any directives or negotiate with any party on keeping this information secret.

5. The principle of confidentiality

All the information is given to the client, or at the client's direction, to a third party.  In any other case, the company does not give any client information to any third party.  This includes any information that is directly related to the case or any information that the company directly or indirectly acquires during the course of its work.

6. The principle of rotation

The company periodically transfers its staff members to new assignments.

7. The principle of practicality and goal-orientation

The company strives to accomplish its stated objectives and aims, and if necessary will use all available resources in doing so.