ISO 37001 Certification

ISO 37001 certification

ISO 37001 – Anti -Bribery Management Systems (ABMS) –

The foundations of any organization’s credibility are transparency and trust. Bribery weakens effective institutions and fair business practices. It’s the International Standard that enables any organization to prevent, detect, and respond to bribery by establishing an anti-bribery policy, appointing a person to oversee anti-bribery compliance, training, risk assessments, and due diligence on projects and business associates, implementing financial and commercial controls, and instituting reporting and investigation procedures. This ABMS addresses one of the world’s most destructive and challenging issues head-on, demonstrating a committed approach to stamping out corruption.

About ISO 37001 Standards and need of ISO 37001 Certification

ISO 37001 is a management system standard that provides the requirements and guidelines for the establishment, implementation, monitoring, maintenance, and continuous improvement of an Anti-Bribery Management System (ABMS). This ABMS Standard was published in 2016 by International Organization of Standardization (ISO).

This ISO 37001 Standards adheres to the High-Level Structure (HLS) and uses the same terminology as other ISO management system standards. This means that an ABMS can be implemented as a standalone management system, as part of a larger compliance management system based on ISO 37301, or as part of a larger management system based on ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 27001, ISO 45001 etc so on.

Who can implement ISO 37001 Anti-Bribery Management System for ISO 37001 Certification?

ISO 37001(ABMS) can be implemented by any organization, large or small, public, private, or non-profit, and in any country. It’s a versatile tool that can be tailored to the size and type of the company, as well as the bribery risk it faces.

ISO 37001:2016 outlines the requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining, reviewing, and upgrading an anti-bribery management system, as well as providing recommendations. The system can work independently or as part of a larger management system. In terms of the organization’s activities, ISO 37001:2016 addresses the following:

• Bribery in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors
• Bribery by the organization.
• Bribery by the organization’s personnel acting on the organization’s behalf or for its benefit.
• Bribery by the organization’s business associates acting on the organization’s behalf or for its benefit.
• Bribery by the organization’s personnel acting on the organization’s behalf or for its benefit.
• Bribery by the organization’s business associates acting on the organization’s behalf or (e.g. a bribe offered or accepted through or by a third party).

Only bribery is covered by ISO 37001:2016. It lays out the standards for a management system that will assist an organization in preventing, detecting, and responding to bribery, as well as complying with anti-bribery laws and voluntary commitments that apply to its operations.

This ISO 37001 standard has Limitation i.e does not directly address fraud, cartels, and other anti-trust/competition offences, money-laundering, or other activities related to corrupt practices. But the organization (if wants to cover theses) can extend the scope of the management system to address as much as possible and maintain the necessary controls and monitoring best possible.

What are the requirements of ISO 37001 Standards for implementation and ISO 37001 Certification?

This ISO 37001:2016 Standard has 10 Clauses, where requirements for implementation and Certification are given in Clause # 4 to Clause# 10, the key requirements are

• Understanding the organization and its context
• Understanding the needs and expectations of stakeholders
• Determining the scope of the anti-bribery management system
• Anti-bribery management system
• Bribery risk assessment
• Leadership and commitment
• Anti-bribery policy
• Organizational roles, responsibilities and authorities
• Anti-bribery compliance function
• Delegated decision-making
• Actions to address risks and opportunities
• Anti-bribery objectives and planning to achieve them
• Employment process
• Awareness and training
• Documented information
• Operational planning and control
• Due diligence
• Financial controls
• Non-financial controls
• Implementation of anti-bribery controls by controlled organizations and by business associates
• Anti-bribery commitments
• Gifts, hospitality, donations and similar benefits
• Managing inadequacy of anti-bribery controls
• Raising concerns
• Investigating and dealing with bribery
• Monitoring, measurement, analysis and evaluation
• Internal audit
• Management review
• Review by anti-bribery compliance function
• Improvement

What are the documents requirement for ISO 37001 Certification?

As per the requirements of ISO 37001 given above, the organization planning for Certification ABMS, must maintain the as much as possible necessary applicable documents and record of Compliance of ABMS.

As general Management System, the Following documents & records are the key requirements (at least)

• ABMS Manual and Policy
• SOP
• Risk Analysis Record
• Training record
• Process Monitoring and measurement Record
• Internal Audit
• Management Review meeting

It is advisable to organization that, don’t limit with above said documents, the documents & records requirements can vary organization to organization considering the nature, size, type of the organization. The Purpose of Documentation requirements of ISO 37001 is to demonstrate the compliance and effectiveness of implement ABMS, in the organization.

How to apply for ISO 37001 Certification?

As per the standards business practice, implement the above requirements of ISO 37001 in the organization, complete at least one Internal Audit and Management Review meeting and maintain the necessary compliance record of ABMS implemented system. Apply to ISO Certification for Certification of ISO 37001. During the ISO 37001 Certification, the following Steps of Certification activities are being followed by CAB, prior to issue of ISO 37001 Certification

The Steps of ISO 37001 Certification are

• Stage-1 Audit
• Stage-2 Audit
• Review of Audit File and Certification Decision
• Award of ISO 37001 Certification

What are the benefits of ISO 37001 Certification?

Choosing ISO 37001 Certification, after Implementing of an ABMS can be a smart strategy for demonstrating a company’s commitment to successfully prevent, detect, and respond to bribery.

The some of the advantages i.e benefits of ISO 37001 Certification are:

• Ability to detect, prevent, and respond to bribery by or within the organization has improved.
• Establishing procedures that enable for proper due diligence of potential employees and business partners.
• Opportunity to develop, improve, or modify an organization’s culture
• If a bribery case arises, improved capacity to respond, minimize, and deal with the repercussions
• The existence of an internal process to resolve bribery issues in certain countries can lessen penalties in cases of wrongdoing.
• Reduce bribery risks
• Improves the credibility of the organization among the stake Holders
• Potential enhancement of Customer Satisfaction
• Potential New Relationship and Business opportunity.