Thu 09 Jun 2016
After three years of hard work the new International Standard in bribery risk management is nearly ready.
Following the success of British Standard 10500, the Anti-Bribery Management System (ABMS), in 2013, the International Standards Organisation (ISO) approved the development of an ISO Anti-Bribery Management System.
The preliminary meeting of the ISO committee took place in London in June 2013. This was followed by meetings of the ISO Project Committee in Madrid, Miami, Paris and Kuala Lumpur. The final meeting took place in Mexico City in late May 2016.
I have had the honour of undertaking the role of Head of UK Delegation to the ISO committee, throughout the three years of development of the Standard. I had previously been involved in the development of the British Standard ABMS.
There are some 40 nations involved in the development of the International Standard with a further eight official liaison organisations also engaged.
I have been regularly reporting on progress over the years and those reports can be read here.
The fifth and final meeting in Mexico was attended by approximately 75 delegates and some 640 comments, received in relation to the latest version of the Standard, were considered.
All ISO member bodies will now vote of the Standard and, assuming the vote is positive, ISO 37001 will be published in September 2016.
I believe ISO 37001 will become the definitive international benchmark for the management of bribery risks in any type of organisation, operating anywhere in the world. I am also convinced that, in due course, compliance with the Standard will become a commercial necessity for companies that operate as part of international supply networks.
ISO 37001 is a significant step forward in assisting organisations to manage the risks of bribery and, in consequence, an important tool in the global fight against the cancer of corruption.
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