ISO 37001 Anti-bribery Management Systems (ABMS)

What is ISO 37001?

ISO 37001 specifies requirements and provides guidance for establishing, implementing, maintaining, reviewing and improving an anti-bribery management system. The system can be stand-alone or can be integrated into an overall management system. ISO 37001 addresses the following in relation to the organization's activities:

• 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 of the organization
• bribery of the organization's personnel in relation to the organization's activities
• bribery of the organization's business associates in relation to the organization's activities
• direct and indirect bribery (e.g. a bribe offered or accepted through or by a third party)

ISO 37001 is applicable only to bribery. It sets out requirements and provides guidance for a management system designed to help an organization to prevent, detect and respond to bribery and comply with anti-bribery laws and voluntary commitments applicable to its activities.

ISO 37001 does not specifically address fraud, cartels and other anti-trust/competition offenses, money-laundering or other activities related to corrupt practices, although an organization can choose to extend the scope of the management system to include such activities.

The Anti-bribery Management System which is based on ISO 37001, helps your organization prevent, detect, and address bribery towards better ethical business culture.

ISO 37001 certification makes you bring your organization toward a better business environment. It makes your organization be capable of complying with globally recognized anti-bribery best practices and proves your competence toward implementing and managing an Anti-bribery Management System.

The ISO 37001 Standard establishes the international requirements for a Anti-bribery Management System (ABMS) including the following clauses:

Clause 4 - Context of the Organization (scope)
Clause 5 - Leadership (Executive Level Policy & Directive)
Clause 6 - Planning (Risk Assessment Process)
Clause 7 - Support (Training & Awareness, Control of Documents, etc)
Clause 8 - Operation (Policies, Processes & Procedures)
Clause 9 - Performance Evaluation (Monitor & Measure, Audit Program, Management Review
Clause 10 - Corrective Actions

The requirements of ISO 37001 are generic and are intended to be applicable to all organizations (or parts of an organization), regardless of type, size and nature of activity, and whether in the public, private or not-for-profit sectors.

ISO 37001 certification also known as "registration", is a 3rd party audit performed by a certification body (registrar) such as MSECB (iCertWorks) who, upon verification that an organization is in conformance with the auditable requirements of ISO 37001, will issue an ISO 37001 Certificate.  This certification is then maintained through regularly scheduled annual surveillance audits by the registrar, with re-certification performed on a three year audit cycle.

The ISO 37001 certification three year audit cycle includes:

• Year 1 - Full Stage 1 & Stage 2 Audit
• Year 2 - First Surveillance Audit (partial system audit)
• Year 3 - Second Surveillance Audit (partial system audit)
• Year 4 - 3 year Audit Cycle starts over (repeats)

For more information on ISO 37001 Certification, please fill out the request form on the right side of the page.

Benefits of ISO 37001 Certification:

• Helps the organization identify and protect against bribery risks
• Promotes ethical business culture
• Provides organization commitment to anti-bribery best practices
• Provides reasonable assurance to stakeholders and interested parties
• Provides proof of conformance to international industry standards (best practices)
• Provides sales differentiator for products and services
• Promotes training and awareness
• Promotes a continuous improvement cycle
• Provides legal, regulatory and contractual compliance
• Ensures Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) requirements
• Reduces the likelihood of legal prosecution and fines
• Reduces insurance costs, litigation, claims and liability