New anti-bribery standard

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has published an international standard to aid the prevention and detection of bribery. It sets out a new anti-bribery standard to help address growing global concern over bribery in public and private sector organisations.

ISO 37001 takes into account experience of the regulatory regime in action over the past few years, building on and replacing BS 10500. The new standard:

• assists organisations with turning the legal requirements of the Bribery Act into practical measures
• provides guidance on how to put the right controls in place
• sets out the requirements for an organisation looking to set up a management system to prevent and detect bribery
• sets out how to confront bribery should it arise
• covers the many forms of bribery including bribery of individual personnel; bribery of the organisation by another party; bribery by the organisation itself; and indirect bribery from a third party.

Bribery continues to be a hot topic at home and abroad. The CIPFA Counter Fraud Centre welcomes the new standard. Like rust, bribery slowly eats away at the foundations of an organisation so it is essential to put in place measures to prevent corruption, mitigate risk, and boost confidence in the public sector.

• ISO 37001 Anti-Bribery Management System