International Anti-Corruption Day is on the 9th of December, and bribery is one of the facets of corruption.
Bribery is “an attempt to make someone do something for you by giving the person money, presents, or something else that they want” (definition by the Cambridge Dictionary).
The core purpose of accreditation is to have an independent, impartial and transparent body that will assess the competence and conformity of organisms. Therefore, accreditation and anti-bribery management systems were destined for brilliant cooperation.
ISO 37001 – Anti-bribery management systems was published in 2016 to provide a management system framework to help organisations to implement measures specifically to help prevent, detect, and address any risk of bribery. ISO designed the framework of ISO 37001 to support organisations of all types.
The standard covers several core aims, including the ability to demonstrate adherence to relevant legislation, manage bribery risks, and build confidence for external scrutiny of the effectiveness of the organization’s policies. This is achieved through a management system approach to such issues as policy development, training, structural issues, risk assessment, and implementation of relevant controls. The standard covers controls for both bribery activities conducted by the organisation and bribery activities conducted against the organisation.
Certification Bodies can be accredited for ISO 37001 under ISO/IEC 17021-1 Conformity assessment — Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems — Part 1: Requirements.
ISO has also produced a guide to implementing an Anti-bribery management system https://www.iso.org/publication/PUB100457.html
ISO is currently preparing a revision of the standard.
Useful links
https://www.iso.org/publication/PUB100457.html
ISO – ISO 37001 — Anti-bribery management systems
ISO – ISO 37001:2016 – Anti-bribery management systems — Requirements with guidance for use