Management Systems for the Prevention of Corruption - ISO 37001
WHAT IS UNI ISO 37001 STANDARD
The international standard ISO 37001--developed by the Technical Committee "Anti-bribery management system"--sets requirements for establishing, updating and improving a management system for the prevention of corruption that contains appropriate measures for identifying and assessing the risk of corruption and for preventing, tracing and addressing it.
GOAL
The purpose is to enable the company to determine the factors that may affect its ability to achieve the objectives of the management system for the prevention of corruption by identifying general characters, including:
- The size, structure, and delegated decision-making authority of the organization
- The places and sectors in which the company operates
- The nature, scale and complexity of the activities performed
- The business model
- The entities over which it exercises control
- Business partners
- The nature and extent of interactions with public officials
- Applicable legal, regulatory, contractual and professional obligations and fulfillments, keeping as a focus-also the interest of stakeholders
BENEFITS
- Easier access to bank credit and government financing.
- Ability to assert exemptions from company liability mechanisms.
- Adoption of a virtuous model to protect and enhance reputation.
- Containment of expenses and associated liabilities.
- Containment and minimization of risks and penalties according to the damage caused, including under Leg. 231/01.
- Increased transparency and improved performance.
WHY RELY ON ASACERT
ASACERT has been working alongside companies for years to support them in improving processes and achieving goals.
Recognized and appreciated in the industry for the high specialization of its technicians, it makes technology one of the key elements of all its services, especially for the analysis and verification of management systems it develops a customized and sustainable approach for the company, avoiding unnecessary burdens and bureaucracy.
ASACERT personnel are always up-to-date on standardization; this aspect, combined with ongoing research and training, allows them to stand out in the market and is a real advantage for partner companies.
APPROACH
The risk-based approach to adopting and implementing appropriate prevention mechanisms in the area of anti-corruption exploits and develops for the benefit of the company the already established logics and methodologies for building favorable compliance models congruent with national and international regulations on similar issues.
The Organization must be able to carry out, in the analysis of its activities, an examination of the criteria for assessing its level of risk, determining the relevant external and internal elements, with an indication of the activities that influence its ability to achieve its objectives. The management system for the prevention of corruption must therefore contain suitable measures designed to identify and assess the risk of corruption with the aim of preventing, tracking and addressing it.
Offering, promising, providing, accepting, or requesting an undue advantage in any value (which may be economic or non-economic) directly or indirectly and regardless of location, violating applicable law as an inducement or reward for a person to act or omit actions in connection with the performance of that person's duties.
Law 190/12 (as amended by Legislative Decree 33/2013 and supplemented by Legislative Decree 97/2016) developed an anti-corruption system at the national level (with the National Anticorruption Plan - PNA) and at the decentralized level, for individual administrations (through the Three-Year Plan for the Prevention of Corruption - PTPC). It is qualified as a system norm, highly general with the task of outlining the basic features of the fight against corruption.
ANAC also issued updates to the NAP (Determination 12/2015). These measures, moreover, come alongside further significant innovations in the area of transparency and control and, in particular, the Authority's approval of the following
In our current penal code, the crime of bribery is framed under Title II, in Crimes against Public Administration (according to the constitutionally oriented indications of Art. 97).
Art. 318 Penal Code-headed Bribery for the Exercise of a Function- means the agreement between a public official and one or more private citizens by which the former accepts from the latter(s) undue remuneration as consideration for an act related to the exercise of his or her functions. Art. 319 of the Criminal Code-headed Bribery for an act contrary to the duties of office-is characterized by one or more acts contrary to the duties of office, accompanied by undue giving of money or performance of utilities, both prior to and subsequent to the typical act.
Guarantor of Competition and Market (AGCM) of the Regulation establishing the criteria and procedures for awarding the legality rating of enterprises.
The primary goal of companies should be geared toward creating a multifunctional, cross-functional structure of their internal control system, which is capable of protecting and preventing any corrupt activity.
An appropriate anti-corruption program should, in general, develop by providing:
- The identification of risk areas and analysis of the control safeguards in place
- The definition and review of information flows to the relevant bodies (Supervisory Board and Top Management) and the adoption of effective mechanisms for reporting established or alleged violations (whistleblowing)
- The strengthening of the penalty system
- The revisiting of decision-making and implementation procedures
- Revisiting the Code of Ethics and, more generally, appropriate corporate social responsibility programs
- The promotion of specific training courses and the promotion of awareness campaigns
- Effective plans for monitoring, detecting violations of business rules, and reporting
With the innovations introduced by the Anti-Corruption Law, the Legislature's increased controls on the matter and-with the entry into the regulatory landscape of the new Procurement Code (Legislative Decree 50/2016), which provides for a greater role attributed to ANAC-companies have an increasingly strong need to strengthen their preventive control mechanisms with reference to corrupt practices.
The Management Model under Leg. 231/01, the Code of Ethics, the awarding of legality rating to companies as well as the implementation of increasingly restrictive management systems are sometimes not enough to protect a company. Such measures must necessarily be intertwined with virtuous systems of prevention and promotion of appropriate ethical principles in business activities.
The 37001 Certification system implements, collects, manages and improves the information that is collected daily from companies, identifies the roles involved and the resources to be trained and implemented, and monitors the information, training and control activities that must necessarily be present in a business.