The 8 Supply Chain Act duties – step by step in procurement

The eight LkSG duties – concrete in everyday procurement

From risk management to the annual report: every due diligence duty translated into a traceable workflow in the supplier portal and catalog.

The German Supply Chain Act (LkSG) names eight clear duties. The real challenge is implementation: Excel lists, email threads, separate compliance tools. Ovenca shows how every duty lives inside the procurement process itself – where suppliers are onboarded, orders approved and documents archived.

All 8 duties covered
Audit trail
BAFA-compliant
Enterprise-grade

LkSG is not a checklist – it is a process you operate

The Supply Chain Act names eight due diligence duties. The hardest part is not understanding them – it is anchoring them: Who documents the risk analysis? How do preventive measures reach the order approval? When does a breach become a remedial action? Ovenca answers these questions with an operating model, not another reporting template.

The eight LkSG duties

Every duty. One workflow. One proof.

How Ovenca turns the due diligence duties under § 3 LkSG into practical workflows that procurement and suppliers use every day.

Risk management & risk analysis

Structured, annually repeated analysis across all suppliers with risk categories by commodity group, country and supplier profile.

  • Duties 1 & 2: policy statement and risk analysis
  • Risk matrix configurable to your policy
  • Prioritisation by severity, reversibility and likelihood
  • Historised analysis results for audit and annual report

Preventive and remedial measures

Preventive measures for identified risks and remedial processes for confirmed violations – as a workflow, not as a project.

  • Duties 3 & 4: preventive and remedial measures
  • Automatic escalation on threshold breach
  • Four-eyes principle for high-risk suppliers
  • Effectiveness review as a structured follow-up

Grievance mechanism

Low-threshold grievance mechanism, accessible internally and externally – with a clear process chain and protection of anonymity.

  • Duty 5: grievance mechanism per § 8 LkSG
  • Multilingual reporting channels
  • Pseudonymised handling and historisation
  • Interface to internal audit or whistleblower tools

Documentation and reporting

Gapless documentation of all due diligence activities – the foundation for the BAFA annual report and external audits.

  • Duties 6 & 7: documentation and reporting
  • Annual BAFA report as standard export
  • Seven-year retention with versioning
  • Access rights separated for procurement, compliance, audit
Why this way

Duty fulfilment that does not add workload to procurement

The most common LkSG implementation mistake: a separate compliance system that nobody in operational procurement ever opens. Ovenca integrates the duties where they actually arise.

Risk class on the supplier master

Every supplier carries its risk class as master data. Approvals, limits and questionnaires adjust automatically.

Policy changes without a rollout project

New thresholds, additional questionnaires or changed escalation paths are configured – not implemented.

CSDDD-ready

The EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive extends the LkSG. Ovenca's model scales with it – without a system change.

Audit trail instead of audit stress

Every change to assessment, approval or proof is historised. The BAFA or internal audit report emerges from operations – not alongside them.

Modular entry

Start with the supplier portal or the risk analysis, roll the other duties out later. No big-bang, no standstill.

Lanxess reference

A DAX corporation with a complex supply chain has been running Ovenca since 2014 – including all compliance and audit requirements added by the LkSG.

FAQ

What DACH procurement leaders ask about LkSG duties

Related Solutions

Explore other solutions that complement your procurement process.

Next step

Fulfil LkSG duties without a parallel system

Show us your current supplier structure and compliance policy. We will sketch how the eight duties fit into Ovenca – and where the fastest starting point lies.

Discuss LkSG implementation

Briefly describe where you stand on the duties – we will come back with concrete next steps.

Ovenca - eProcurement Plattform for Digital Procurement

Ovenca is the ERP-agnostic eProcurement platform for indirect procurement — catalog, vendor portal and admin governance in one modular solution. Production-proven in a DAX corporation since 2014.

Built for DACH mid-market and enterprises that are replacing SAP SRM, questioning Ariba, or modernizing their catalog and supplier processes. On-premise, private cloud or hybrid — you decide where your data lives.

Contact

Düsseldorfer Str. 14

40764 Langenfeld

+49 2173 2972 20

info@ovenca.de

Features

    LkSG Duties: 8 Due Diligence Obligations in Procurement | Ovenca