Anti-bribery management in the organization.

Currently, there is a lot of news around the world about how bribery is affecting the social, political, commercial, cultural, educational fields, among others. No aspect is exempt from the possibility of being affected by bribery. Thus, bribery has become a massive, broad and harmful practice affecting the organizational ethical values, the growth, and generating distrust not only in customers and investors –by causing instability in the commercial, economic, and market fields–, but also in the labor field, not to mention how it affects the organization reputation.

In view of this situation, ISO 37001 standard was created to help organizations to properly address the bribery-related risks, according to their size, locations, and areas where organizations operate. This standard aims to implement adequate policies, procedures, and controls according to the bribery risks faced by the organization, within the scope of an anti-bribery management system.

In fact, it is necessary to consider that the anti-bribery management system is not infallible and acts of bribery may occur, even if it does exist. Nevertheless, this system implements a set of management components and measures to prevent, detect, and address any bribery risk.  Therefore, the implementation and success or effectiveness of such management system and risk control measures depend, of course, on the level of commitment on the part of the organization’s senior management and governing bodies, whose actions should lead to changes in the organization’s culture, especially in aspects such as integrity, transparency, honesty.