International Accreditation By Rupesh Mishra

1. International Accreditation By Rupesh Mishra

2. ISO/IEC 17000:2004 defines Accreditation as “Third party attestation, relating to the conformity assessment body, conveying formal demonstration of its competency to carry out specific conformity assessment tasks” What is Accreditation ?

3. Accreditation is usually done by the accreditation authority of the concerned country. Accreditation authorities are autonomous bodies having representatiives from government machinery and trade world. Accreditation Process

4. QCI: Quality Council of India ANAB: ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board COFRAC: Comite Francais d'Accréditation UKAS: United Kingdom Accreditation Services JAS-ANZ: Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand DAR: Deutscher Akkreditierungsrat Accreditation Bodies

5. Each national body accredits the certifying bodies/ conformity assessment bodies/ Independent Auditors within their country. Contd

6. Problems with one country accreditation • Duplication for applicants/Organization • Contradicting the TBT agreement GATT • Practical problems • Affects the free flow of goods in international commerce

7. The International Accreditation Forum, Inc. (IAF) is the world association of conformity assessment accreditation bodies and other bodies interested in conformity assessment in the field management systems, products, procedures, Services, Personnel, etc IAF: International Accreditation Forum

8. There are total 49 members in IAF, India is one of them represented by Quality Council of India (QCI). Contd..

9. 1. 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 2. The second purpose of the IAF is to establish mutual recognition arrangements, known as Multilateral Recognition Arrangements (MLA), between its accreditation body members which reduces risk to business and its customers by ensuring that an accredited certificate may be relied upon anywhere in the world Role of IAF

10. Arrangement to issue a common accreditation certificate by a member of IAF which is to be respected by other member accreditation body. The MLA contributes to the freedom of world trade by eliminating technical barriers to trade. Multilateral Arrangement (MLA) of Mutual Recognition

11. IAF works to find the most effective way of achieving a single system that will allow companies with an accredited conformity assessment certificate in one part of the world, to have that certificate recognized elsewhere in the world Contd..

12. The objective of the MLA is that it will cover all accreditation bodies in all countries in the world, thus eliminating the need for suppliers of products or services to be certified in each country where they sell their products or services. Certified once - accepted everywhere. Contd..

13. Implications of MLA • One point recognition for many countries • Smooth International Trade • Proliferation and dilution of accreditation process at third levels. • Dilution of control by accreditation authorities

14. Certification body A certification body is the independent auditor who caries the actual certification process under the accreditation body.

15. A Certification body that is accredited by an accreditation agency, after a conformity assessment will issue a certificate to an organization/applicant for a particular standard with the logo of the Accreditation body. After the initial audit and verification for their initial compliance to an ISO standard, the certification bodies have to carry out surveillance audits at regular intervals (not less than once in a year. Role of Certification agencies

16. Categories of Certifying agencies • Category A: CB having direct accreditation from National Accreditation body • Category B: CB operating under Foreign Accreditation Bodies • Category C: CB operting through branch offices, Franchisee or through representation of foreign CB

17. Control Structure of QMS Certification Process

18. Question Hour

19. Thank You