Company introduces new anti-corruption programme for external business associates; also achieved 5 Petals Award, Gold AIGA 2022 and clean sheet in anti-bribery monitoring and audit
KUALA LUMPUR, 19 January 2023 – Duopharma Biotech Berhad (“Duopharma Biotech” or “the Company”) has fortified its ethical culture and extended its good governance milestones in 2022 with a new integrity and anti-corruption programme for external business associates and reaching new industry benchmarks. The progress is in line with the Company’s ESG focus whereby Governance is one of the key areas where Duopharma Biotech is continuously pursuing higher standards.
“At Duopharma Biotech, we are committed to Corporate Governance that promotes fairness, transparency and accountability. To achieve this, we are integrating a high-integrity and anti-corruption culture into our corporate responsibility agenda, whereby our third-party business associates are also incorporated into our integrity and anti-corruption benchmarks. One of the initiatives we have introduced is the Integrity and Anti-Corruption Programme for all our key business associates, including ouragents, besides also conducting desktop due diligence (“KYC”) on every entity that we intend to form new business relationships with,” commented Duopharma Biotech Group Managing Director Leonard Ariff Abdul Shatar.
Integrity & Anti-Corruption programme rolled out
Within Duopharma Biotech’s Organisational Integrity and Anti-Corruption Plan 2021-2023 (OIACP), the Company has planned to implement an Integrity & Anti-Corruption programme for external business associates. In line with this, as a pilot project, our agents – categorised as external business associates, who worked with Duopharma Biotech were required to enrol in the programme, which includes an Integrity and Anti-Corruption module series, guided by the relevant requirements of the MACC Act 2009. Comprising 14 modules to be completed within a period of 12 months, the inaugural series kicked off in January 2023.
Prior to that, in December 2022, the inaugural batch of 30 agents participating in the Integrity & Anti-Corruption programme had pledged to commit to Integrity, Ethics and Anti-Corruption, whereby all signed the Ikrar Bebas Rasuah (IBR) in a hybrid event witnessed by representatives from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) including Chief Senior Assistant Commissioner Ab Muneim Ibrahim, Deputy Director (Outreach), Community Education Division, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, accompanied by Duopharma Biotech Chief Executive Officer (Commercial) Wan Amir-Jeffery Wan Abdul Majid and Head of Group Internal Audit & Integrity Rama Sockalingam Nagappan. The event also saw the official launch of the module content designed for business associates participating in the Integrity and Anti-Corruption programme. The programme will assist the business associates in identifying gaps, assessing corruption and ethical risks and implementing required control measures to overcome the identified corruption risks.
Second consecutive 5 Petals Gold Ethics Award
In 2022, Duopharma Biotech was also recognised with a BEIM Five Petals Gold Ethics Award for the second consecutive term (each term is 2 years), presented by the Business Ethics Institute of Malaysia (BEIM) – the highest level of recognition for organisational ethics and integrity commitment shown by a Member of the Institute which continually upgrades their policies and procedures in keeping with the standards required. In addition to BEIM membership, recipients of the Five Petals Gold Ethics Award must also have implemented their own Code of Ethics acknowledged by shareholders; have appointed a personnel member to ensure that all aspects of the Code of Ethics are upheld as well as counsels and mediates on issues related to the code; regularly ensures staff attend internal or third-party business ethics training; and have passed BEIM’s annual audit of their business ethics policies and processes.
Gold Award for Anugerah Integriti, Governans dan Antirasuah (AIGA) 2022
Duopharma Biotech Berhad received recognition for its commitment and effort in institutionalising integrity, ethics, and good governance practices at the inaugural Integrity, Governance and Anti-Corruption Awards (AIGA) 2022, by winning the Gold Award. The award ceremony, organised by Malaysian Institute of Integrity (IIM), was officiated by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof. AIGA’s assessment is based on international standard criteria, including the ISO37001 Anti-Bribery Management System (ABMS) and the ISO 9001 Quality Management System. The panel of judges comprises experienced experts from the public and corporate sectors as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the fields of quality audit, integrity, governance and anti-corruption.
Clean sheet ABMS ISO37001 Certification Audits
Meanwhile, Duopharma Biotech further cemented its Anti Bribery Management System (ABMS) ISO37001 credentials when it recorded a clean sheet in its first term holding the ABMS ISO37001 certification, that was valid for three years commencing October 2020, whereby the Company had achieved a tally of ZERO Non-Conformance Reports recorded. In addition, in the ISO 37001 Anti-Bribery Management System Surveillance Audit 2022 conducted from 19 to 21 December 2022 at all of Duopharma Biotech’s sites, the Company passed with flying colours when no Opportunities For Improvement (OFI) issued across all subsidiary companies under the Group.