Why you should use only IAF Accredited ISO Management System Certification Bodies
Introduction
In my career as a Management System Consultant, I have seen many organizations embarrassed, denied regulatory certification and lose business opportunities as a result of procuring ISO Certification from unaccredited certification bodies.
I have even witnessed cases where the consultant is the one the made the organization procure unacceptable / unaccredited ISO Certificate. Some have got the cheapest or the quickest certificate only to find out that it is not acceptable. Finding the right and accredited certification body for your ISO certification is very significant when you want to procure ISO Management System Certification.
Why use an Accredited Certification Body?
Third party management systems certification demonstrates compliance to standard, regulatory requirements or code of practice, which is the reason regulators and clients are requiring it from organizations. Getting the right organisation to carry out your ISO certification can be challenging and if not carefully thought out may lead obtaining unacceptable and unfit-for-purpose certificate from the wrong hands. Choosing a certification body that has been accredited by an accreditation body that is a signatory to the IAF Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MLA) is the way to go. It proves that your system/certificate complies with best practice. It means your organization is competent to deliver a consistently reliable and impartial service which meets the appropriate, internationally-recognised standard.
What should I consider when selecting a Certification Body?
Many organizations have acquired ISO Certificate(s) that turned out useless to them and unacceptable by the regulators and clients. Therefore, when deciding organisation to certify your management system, the following are points you should look out for:
- What Accreditation do they have (e.g NiNAS, IAS)?
- Is the accreditation body a member of IAF?
- The qualifications, training and ongoing competence monitoring of their staff.
- Technically competent auditors that have the relevant experience and sector expertise.
- Is their certification recognised by regulators and your client?
- Is their certification recognised in domestic and overseas market?
- Does their certification independently and impartially verify compliance to a standard?
What is Accreditation
To demonstrate a certification body’s competence and independence, a certification body should be accredited by an IAF accredited accreditation body. It should be noted that the fact that a certification body is not accredited does not, by itself, mean that it is not a reputable organization.
Accreditation is the independent evaluation of certification bodies against the standard ISO/IEC 17021: (Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems) to ensure their impartiality, competence and consistency. The standard sets out the principles and requirements for the competence, consistency and impartiality of bodies providing audit and certification of management systems services.
What is International Accreditation Forum (IAF)?
The IAF is the world association of Conformity Assessment Accreditation Bodies.
The primary function of the IAF is to develop a single worldwide program of conformity assessment which reduces risk for business and its customers by assuring them that accredited certificates may be relied upon. Accreditation assures users of the competence and impartiality of the body accredited.
IAF has two primary purposes. Firstly, to ensure that IAF accreditation body members only accredit certification bodies that are competent to issue certifications and are not subject to conflicts of interest. Secondly, to establish Multilateral Recognition Arrangements (MLA) between its accreditation body members.
Accreditation bodies are required to sign Multilateral Recognition Arrangements (MLA) which promote the acceptance of goods and services across international borders. The purpose of the MLA is to allow accreditations and the certificates issued by certification bodies to be recognised by the other members of the MLA. The MLA covers all accreditation bodies, thus eliminating the need for suppliers to be certified in each country where they sell their products or services. The objective is to promote the idea of “certified once, accepted everywhere.”
Role of IAF
The role of IAF is to:
- Ensure that its Accreditation Body Members only accredit bodies that are competent to do the work they undertake and are not subject to conflicts of interest.
- Maintain the IAF Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MLA) among Accreditation Body Member signatories, which reduces risk to businesses and their customers by ensuring that an accredited certificate or validation/verification statement may be relied upon anywhere in the world.
- Work to find the most effective way of achieving a single system that will allow companies with an accredited conformity assessment certificate or validation/verification statement in one part of the world to have that certificate or validation/verification statement recognised elsewhere in the world.
- Eliminate the need for suppliers of products or services to be certified in each country where they sell their products or services. They can be certified once and it is accepted everywhere.
- Promote accreditation as an effective mechanism for providing confidence in goods and services, which is essential to global trade facilitation.
Benefits of using an accredited certification body
- You remove your risk of procurement of fake and unaccredited certificate
- No more guesswork when choosing a certification as accredited certification body gives you confidence that you will get the service that closely meets your requirements;
- The use of accredited conformity assessment services is increasingly a stipulation of both the public and private sector organization, it will win for you more new businesses;
- It will give you access to overseas markets because certificates issued by bodies that are accredited by an IAF MLA signatory are recognised and accepted all over the world;
- Help to identify best practice since the certification body is required to have appropriate knowledge of your business sector;
- It will help you demonstrate due diligence in the event of legal action;
- It will help you control costs with the help of knowledge transfer since accredited certification bodies can be a good source of impartial advice;
- It offers market differentiation and leadership by showing to others credible evidence of good practice;
- It reduces paperwork and increase efficiency by reducing the necessity to re-audit your business, your certification provides confidence that your organization has been audited to the standard’s requirements.
- Today you can verify any ISO certificate directly from IAF website.
Please choose the Best and Credible ISO Certification Body that is accredited as per the IAF guidelines and Policies with evidence of IAF accreditation.
Cletus Akhigbe
DG – Quality and Management System Auditors Institute (QMSAI)
CEO MS-Solutions Limited