Section 17A of the MACC Act
If any person associated with a commercial organisation commits a corrupt act in order to obtain / retain business or advantage for the commercial organisation, the commercial organisation commits an offence. Under this new provision, directors and senior management will be liable for the actions of any person in the commercial organisation if that person is involved in corrupt acts unless it can be shown and proven that the commercial organisation has successfully implemented “adequate procedures” to prevent such corrupt acts from occurring.
The penalty carries a maximum fine of 10 times the sum of gratification involved, or RM1 million whichever is higher or a maximum jail term of 20 years, or both. The commercial organisation must demonstrate that it has “adequate procedures” in place to prevent such associated persons from carrying out the corrupt conduct.
This Law is applicable to all companies regardless of size and industry.
Establishing an ABMS Through ISO37001
The international standard for anti-bribery management systems is quickly becoming one of the key management systems standards across the globe. ISO37001 was published in 2016 and is the international standard for anti-bribery management systems. The standard is designed to assist organizations in implementing and maintaining specific measures which assist them in preventing, detecting and addressing bribery across the organization and its business activities.
This could include:
- Bribery activities conducted by the organization
- Bribery activities conducted against the organization
ISO37001 is applicable to any size organization across the globe regardless of business activities and industry, and can easily be integrated into an existing management system such as ISO9001, ISO22301 and ISO27001.