International auditors certified on Friday the Financial-Intelligence Agency (FIA) of the Government of Bosnia’s Federation (FBiH) entity as an organization that fulfils the standard of requirements of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in its implementation of its anti-bribery management system.

The FIA is the first such institution in the region to receive such a certificate, which will “help prevent, detect and solve the problem of bribery, whether it is bribery of an organization or bribery in its favour, that of its employees or business partners,” said FIA Director, Esad Mahmutovic.

Independent auditors of Intercert, an internationally accredited certification body, checked whether the processes, business policies and decisions comply with the set standard ISO 37001: 2016 and confirmed that the management system in the Financial Information Agency is not prone to bribery and corrupt activities and that it’s fully compliant with these requirements, FIA said.

Mahmutovic explained that the certificate is proof of the good implementation of procedures and policies in practice and that FIA ​​has become an organization that fully adapts its operational processes to international standards.

“The certificate is an additional incentive for us to continue with the business policy which is based on the principles of legality, competence, optimization of business risks, responsibility and transparency,” he said.

The FIA ​​has thus established an anti-bribery management system which includes policies and procedures against bribery and other corrupt practices, commitment and accountability of its management, oversight, anti-bribery training, risk assessment and verification of projects and business partners, financial and procurement control, as well as commercial control in contracting, corrective activities and continuous improvement.