PRINCIPLES FOLLOWED IN THE PREPARATION AND MANAGEMENT OF CRIMINAL COMPLIANCE PROGRAMS
Criminal Compliance Programs are prepared and managed taking into account the requirements established by:
- The Article31band following of the Criminal Code.
- The Circular of the Attorney General’s Office 1/2016, of January 22, on the criminal liability of legal entities in accordance with the reform of the Criminal Code made by Organic Law 1/2015.
- The Jurisprudence of the Supreme Court.
Likewise, Criminal Compliance Programs are prepared and managed through the application of the technical standards that exist on Compliance Management Systems, which are created by expert organizations, both global and national.
We use, preferably, the rule UNE19601“2017 “Criminal Compliance Management Systems. Requirements with guidance for their use” . This standard was created by the Spanish Association for Standardization, and constitutes the most important Spanish reference framework in the field of Criminal Compliance. This is so for the following reasons:
- It is aligned with the requirements for the preparation and management of Compliance Programs established in the Spanish Penal Code.
- It allowsto adopt, implement, maintain and improve a Criminal Compliance Management System.
- It iscertifiable. In this sense, certification is a process by which it is demonstrated, through an expert and independent third party, and objectively and impartially, that the specific Compliance Program meets the requirements of the reference standard (in this case, it would be the UNE 19601).
Certification is not mandatory, but it does offer certain guarantees for the purposes of assessing the suitability of the Compliance Program.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, we also apply the following technical standards on Criminal Compliance Management Systems:
- ISO 37301:2020 Standard “Compliance Management Systems. Guideline”:ISO 37301:2020 Standard “Compliance Management Systems. Guideline”:
It constitutes the international standard par excellence to comply with general legality. It was published in October 2020, and comes to replace the ISO 19600:2014 Standard “Compliance Management System. Guideline”.
ISO 37301, unlike ISO 19600, is certifiable.
- Standard UNE 19602“2019 “Tax Compliance Management Systems. Requirements with guidance for use”:
It is the Spanish reference standard for the tax field. It is certifiable and can be integrated into the UNE 19601 policy.
- ISO 37001: 2016 Standard “Anti-Bribery Management Systems. Requirements with guidance for use”:
It is the international reference standard for the field of bribery. It is certifiable.
The Criminal Compliance Programs are designed and managed in a fully personalized and proportionate, taking into account the internal and external circumstances of the organization, such as its size, the sector of activity to which it is dedicated, the geographical area in which it operates or the type of suppliers with which it relates.
To achieve the aforementioned customization, we carry out an exhaustive analysis of the organization, both its business and regulatory context.