Courtesy: ISO 37001 Anti-Bribery management systems
A management system is a set of policies, processes and procedures used by an organization to ensure that it can fulfill the tasks required to achieve its objectives. These objectives cover many aspects of the organization’s operations (including financial success, safe operation, product quality, client relationships, legislative and regulatory conformance and worker management). For instance, an environmental management system enables organizations to improve their environmental performance, and an occupational safety and health management system enables an organization to control its occupational health and safety risks.
The international standard ISO 9000:2015 (Title: Quality management systems – fundamentals and vocabulary) defines the term in chapter 3.5.3 as a “set of interrelated or interacting elements of an organization to establish policies and objectives, and processes to achieve those objectives”.
A simplification of the main aspects of a management system is the 4-element “plan, do, check, act” approach. A complete management system covers every aspect of management and focuses on supporting the performance management to achieve the objectives. The management system should be subject to continuous improvement as the organization learns
ISO 37001 is the new international standard designed to help organizations implement an anti-bribery management system. It specifies a series of measures your organization can implement to help prevent, detect and address bribery.
Designed to be integrated into your organization’s existing management processes and controls, ISO 37001 also follows the common ISO structure for management system standards, for easy integration with ISO 9001 for example.
The requirements specified by ISO 37001 address two key areas:
- Bribery by the organization, its personnel or business associates for its own gain
- Bribery of the organization, its personnel or business associates in relation to its activities
The standard is flexible and can be adapted to manage many types of bribery and suits a wide range of organizations including:
- Large organizations and enterprises
- Small and medium-sized enterprises
- Public and not-for-profit organizations
- Non-government organizations (NGOs) and charities