Focus on Farmex Compliance System

At Farmex, the compliance system is supported by the management systems since both compliance and management systems prevent risks. The first is more general for the different risks of the company and the second is more specific based on each management system that the company wants to implement, for example, quality (ISO 9001), environment (ISO 14001), health and safety (ISO 45001), bribery prevention (ISO 37001) among others.

Our approach was based on the use of the structure of management systems to enhance the compliance system, placing the bribery prevention management system (ISO 37001) as the main pillar, with internal and external audits performed by independent third parties to validate the operation of the system.

This project begun in 2017 and from the legal department we supported the operations manager, responsible for the integrated management system, (ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001) in expanding the scope and management of these systems; as well as we became responsible for the Bribery Prevention Management System (ISO 37001); these ccreditations were obtained in 2018 by AENOR. In 2019, we obtained the authorised economic operator certification for importers and exporters (International Trade Logistics Chain Security Management System) granted by the Peruvian tax authority.

In subsequent years, the sexual harassment prevention and personal data protection systems were included. We also began to follow up on the observations of the audits carried out by the Group’s internal audit Area. All this has meant that in the legal department we had to incorporate an industrial engineer who supports us with the compliance system and the company’s management systems. This has allowed us to improve the performance of the legal department from a process-based approach by complementing the knowledge of the industrial engineer with legal project management, to implement these projects.

Working under a project scheme has allowed us to manage and optimise our resources more efficiently by defining the roles and responsibilities of each team member in each project, thus reducing our costs, and maximising our human capital. In this way, from the legal department we supervise the company’s management systems, attending the various audits and following up on any observations that may be made.

Our objective is to have better control of the business risks and to be a more preventive than reactive legal department, generating fewer contingencies. Finally, our clients and suppliers carry out increasingly demanding and frequent audits to be able to contract with them, and so to this extent the compliance system allows us to successfully pass the audits and to be a reliable and safe ally for them.