ISO 37001 is the first international management system which was developed and released specifically against bribery.
Purposes of the Anti-Bribery Management System (ABMS):
- to assist in establishment, implementation, maintenance, and improvement of the ABMS;
- to provide easy and effective means of preventing, detecting and managing the risks of bribery;
- to help organizations applying the standard to avoid or reduce all costs, risks and harms associated with bribery, while strengthening trust and confidence in their relationships;
- to assist its operator in detecting and managing bribery, whether committed by the organization itself or by someone else on behalf of the organization or its employees.
The requirements of the management system concern the following areas:
- Anti-bribery policies and procedures
- Commitment and responsibility of leadership
- Monitoring and training of employees
- Risk assessment and due diligence
- Controls of finance, procurement and legal activities
- Management review, monitoring, internal audit
- Corrective action and continual improvement
Benefits to an organization:
It provides security to the shareholders, management, employees and also this intention is demonstrated for business partners and other stakeholders that the organization takes all existing measures to prevent corruption.
It is applicable to small, medium and large organizations in all sectors, including public, private and not-for-profit sectors. Third party certification is also acceptable as a requirement standard.
The certification of ISO 37001 cannot provide assurance that no bribery has occurred or will occur in relation to the organization, as it is not possible to completely eliminate the risk of bribery. However, this document can help the organization implement reasonable and proportionate measures designed to prevent, detect and respond to bribery.