The National Anti-Corruption Commission Thailand proceeds to anti-bribery through ISO 37001 amidst digital age

BANGKOK, THAILAND – Media OutReach Newswire – 27 February 2024 – The Office of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) as the main agency for the prevention and suppression of corruption in Thailand, announced to seriously adopt ISO 37001 in tackling corruption, involving giving and receiving bribes in the current digitalization era.

The NACC indicated that bribery problems are a serious threat and impact every nation around the world. It disrupts economic systems and creates challenges and obstacles for numerous nations. According to the World Bank, bribery accounts for as much as US$1 trillion annually, which is equivalent to 3% of the global GDP. As such, the ISO is both, an independent organization and a non-governmental international organization, whose mission is to establish international standards, therefore ISO 37001 Anti-Bribery Management System or ABMS has been developed by ISO. ISO 37001 is the international standard for a management system designed to prevent the giving and receiving of bribes. This anti-corruption management guideline is applicable to all types or sizes of organizations, including those in the public, private, and non-profit sectors. Each country can use it as guidance to adopt and voluntarily implement these standards domestically.

The ISO 37001 is internationally recognized as an instrument for corporate compliance programs and as a powerful internal control measure to prevent bribery of juristic persons. Many countries have implemented domestic regulations to incentivize and promote the adoption of ISO 37001 in both the private and public sectors.

The NACC has amended the Organic Act on Anti-Corruption, B.E. 2561 (2018) by including a provision that imposes criminal penalties for juristic person instances of bribery. This amendment has studied best practices from foreign countries and studied or adopted the principle of ISO 37001 into consideration in drafting Section 176 of the act as well, resulting in consistency with the principle and practice of ISO 37001. For the purpose of concrete mobilization and raising awareness of Section 176, the NACC has established the Anti-Bribery Advisory Service (ABAS) to drive anti-bribery concretely. ABAS is a center that collects and disseminates various knowledge as well as provides recommendations to prevent bribery problems in the business sectors. In this regard, the NACC provides “Guidelines on Appropriate Internal Control Measures for Juristic Persons”, which align with ISO 37001. The guidelines and other interest documents can be downloaded via https://www.nacc.go.th/abas/

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Source: https://www.nacc.go.th/categorydetail/20180831184638361/20240208140737

*This press release translation is funded by the National Anti-Corruption Fund (NACF).

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National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), Thailand

The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) is a constitutional independent organization and supervised by nine commissioners selected from various professions. It is authorized to undertake work on the prevention and suppression of malfeasance, particularly in government agencies, on assets investigations, as well as on the monitoring of ethics and virtues of political position holders.

It has the authority to file charges in court as well as support and build up awareness of the penalties for committing corruption. The NACC is supervised by the NACC Board and has the Office of the NACC as its administrative agency.

Since 1997, Thai Courts have ruled against and punished politicians, former ministers, high-ranking government officials as well as executives of the private sector in the thousands of cases submitted by the NACC.