Legal Requirement and Compliance to Anti-Bribery Management System

Malaysian organizations are not doing enough to protect themselves. Reported incidents of bribery and corruption have increased every year which concerning that Malaysian organizations appear to be ambivalent about addressing the risks of bribery and corruption.

The non-legal definitions of corruption can be categorized as below;

• The abuse of entrusted power for private gain
• Misuse of public power, office or authority for private benefit
• A civil servant abuses his authority in order to obtain an extra income from the public

The corruption can be in forms of bribery, embezzlement, fraud, extortion, favouritism, and nepotism. The bribery offences can be described as accepting, receiving, soliciting, demanding or attempting to obtain gratification. Under Section 16 & 17, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009 (amendment 2018), the bribery described as a giving/offering gratification. While in Section 165, Penal Code mentioned that the bribery is receiving/obtaining valuable thing without consideration. The bribery can be manifested in many ways such as money, donation, gift, entertainment, sponsorship, discount, commission, etc.

Section 17A has been added inside the MACC Act to add the Offence by the Commercial Organization. This Amendment Act was passed by the Malaysian Parliament on 4th April 2018 with Royal Assent being granted on 27th April 2018. However, the Amendment Act will come into effect on 1st June 2020. Prior to the Amendment Act, only individuals were liable for committing bribery offences under the MACC Act 2009. Although an employee or director of the company could be punished for the crime, the company itself did not suffer any penal consequences. In fact, in many cases from a business point of view, the company benefited from the corrupt act committed by the individual.

ISO 37001:2016 Anti-Bribery Management System Standard (ABMS)

ISO 37001 was published in October 2016. It has been designed to assist organizations to establish, implement, maintain and improve an anti-bribery management system. The system can be stand-alone or can be integrated into an overall management system. The standard is flexible and can be adapted to a wide range of organizations including large organization, medium & small organization, public or private sector, a non-profit organization, and organization in any country. Although the standard is confined to bribery, organizations can decide to extend the scope of the management system to include other activities related to corrupt practices include bribery, false claim, misuse of power, money laundering and other activities related to corrupt practices. In other words, this ISO 37001 assisting an organization to establish a series of measures and controls to prevent, respond and detect the bribery.

Prinsip Mahir can help in developing written procedures in compliance with the ISO 37001 requirements such as in determining the internal and external issues, stakeholder’s needs and expectations and the suitable scope of the ABMS. We will monitor the implementation of anti-bribery policy, objectives and processes include the due diligence process on personnel, projects and business associates. The ABMS opens a new pathway towards empowering the image of an organization with integrity to be more proactive in dealing with corruption. This standard has been internationally recognized in promoting good governance in an organization in implementing an effective anti-bribery management system.