Alstom has obtained the first AFAQ ISO 37001 certification awarded by AFNOR Certification following an audit carried out between March and May 2017 at seven sites in France and Europe, confirming its commitment to fight corruption.
The international standard ISO 37001, introduced in October 2016, advocates a series of measures to help organizations of all sizes, both private and public, to prevent, detect and tackle bribery through the implementation of an anti-bribery management system.
The audit focused on the adequacy of Alstom’s anti-bribery system on a European scale according to the standard ISO 37001, in particular its Ethics & Compliance policy, the Group’s Code of Ethics issued to all its employees since 2001, and the various instructions relating to existing anti-corruption procedures and numerous associated training tools.
Points highlighted by the AFNOR Certification included the strong desire of Alstom’s management to instil an ethical culture within the company, procedures that are well adapted to risks, particularly at the purchasing level, and the direct involvement of employees through a network of 260 E&C ambassadors spread across all Alstom sites around the world.
Henri Poupart-Lafarge, Chief Executive Officer of Alstom, said: “We are very proud to be among the first companies in the world to receive this certification. It demonstrates our strong commitment to ethics and validates the considerable efforts made internally to increase communication and awareness of our ethical procedures and values, implemented by our Ethics and Compliance Department.”
This first certification marks the start of the Alstom certification campaign and will be followed by further audits in other regions in which the Group operates.
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Michael Julian, pictured above, is the Chief Compliance Officer at Alstom, based in Paris. He can be contacted here.
4 Comments
Congratulations to Alstom. We hope the example to be followed by other big companies, specially those working with governments.
Nice to see Alstom being the first company in the World for this Certificate in the European continent. Wonder who will be the first in ASIA.
The question that should be asked is how will ISO 37001 certification improve companies compliance with anti-bribery laws of various jurisdictions. FCPA, UK Bribery Act and other anti-bribery laws have requirements that ISO 37001 do not include. The requirements of a nations anti-bribery laws should and can be integrated into ISO 37001 or ISO 19600 management system. Knowledge of how to do this is more important than just certification. Certification in itself may not improve a company's anti-bribery compliance without integration of anti-bribery laws.
ISO 37001 Section 4.1 Understanding the organization and its context, Item (h) requires an organisation to determine applicable statutory, regulatory, contractual and professional obligations and duties. ISO 37001, Section 5.2 Anti-bribery policy, Item( b) requires compliance with anti-bribery laws that are applicable to the organization.
So ISO 37001 requires an organisation to determine its applicable legal rquirements and comply with them, either concidentally with, or in addition to, the explicit requirements of ISO 37001.
The same is also true of other standards such as ISO 14001 and ISO 27001 etc.
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