Certifications
A tool for combating corporate corruption
The context:
Promulgated in December 2016, the French Act on transparency, anti-corruption and the modernisation of economic life, called the Sapin 2 Act, imposed on large companies with at least 500 employees and revenue in excess of €100 million the obligation to comply with various procedures for preventing and detecting corruption practices. The Act provides an action framework: code of behaviour, internal warning mechanism, risk mapping, assessment procedures, etc.
The request:
In response to this specific framework, several certification bodies took the initiative to contact Cofrac in 2017, to obtain accreditation for certifying their anti-corruption management systems, serving as an additional token of confidence and providing a significant competitive advantage on the market. These requests, which manifest an ever-increasing need from companies to demonstrate their competence and quality, required the development of a new accreditation scheme.
Our approach:
To develop this new scheme, the Cofrac Certifications division drew on standard ISO 37001, in relation to the requirements and recommendations for anti-corruption management systems. The methodology used in this framework is one pertaining to traditional continuous improvement management systems. The anti-corruption management system therefore comes under the nomenclature of management systems that can be covered by accredited certification. Accordingly, this scheme takes account of standard ISO/IEC 17021-1 concerning the requirements for bodies conducting the auditing and certification of management systems, supplemented by standard ISO/IEC TS 17021-9 for the competence of auditors, and by the IAF documents concerning multi-site certifications and the durations of certification audits.
The conclusion:
Officially introduced on 30 October 2017, after validation from the Certifications division committee, the accreditation scheme relating to anti-corruption management systems is applicable to applicant bodies.
This means that Cofrac is capable of playing its part, with the certification bodies, in the French anti-corruption mechanism.
« The framework set out by the Sapin 2 Act ties in perfectly with the criteria of impartiality and independence so dear to Cofrac. With the accreditation scheme that is specific to anti-corruption management systems, we start out from the assumption that no one is totally impartial and that it is necessary to determine and analyse the risks, define and minimise the means of corruption, and determine how to manage the crisis when the situation arises. »
Sandrine Dupin, Development manager Certifications division.