Staff and Sub contractor Requirements
All information received by or available to SAAED staff, sub-contractors, or committee members (in whatever format) received in conducting inspection activities, or during other inspection activities, or during any dealings with an organization for any other reason shall be regarded as strictly confidential and shall not be divulged to any 3 rd party (unless specified in ISO/IEC 17020:2012 and ISO/IEC 17065:2012) without the express permission of the organization or individual concerned. The requirement to keep confidential any information will also include any organization that has a legitimate right to audit or inspect SAAED.
Where SAAED is required by law to release confidential information to a third party the client or individual concerned shall, unless regulated by law, be notified in advance of the information provided. However, where the organization is seen to be operating contrary to legal requirements or has operating practices which pose a danger to staff, customers, or the environment. SAAED reserves the right to immediately report any such incident to the relevant authority. Any such reporting will only be undertaken with the permission of a CEO.
Access to Records
All records will be retained in a secure manner, only accessible to authorized staff via either paper records or password controlled electronic records. Sub-contractors will be limited to accessing information produced by them in conducting an inspection. Records will only be made available to organizations who can demonstrate a legitimate (and legal) right to view those records and specifically to Accreditation Bodies.
Confidentiality Declarations
All staff, Sub Contractors, Directors and Committee Members will be required to agree to SAAED confidentiality policy and sign a confidentiality agreement. Sub-contractors will also sign an agreement which also contains the responsibility to maintain confidentiality.
The management of SAAED publishes the following policy statement regarding the impartiality of SAAED in compliance with ISO/IEC 17020:2012 and ISO/IEC 17065:2012 based on the Quality Management Manual for the accredited inspection body.
SAAED is a legally autonomous, independent, and impartial company which performs certifications, inspections, and tests in accordance with national and international standards and directives. To ensure strict neutrality and independence, the inspection body do not provide consultancy services.
Certificate of conformity to the certified product is only issued after approval of authorized person, to ensure that no interest shall predominate.
SAAED does not have (and will not form) any relationships with companies who manufactures the product under certification. Any proposed relationship between SAAED and any other company will undergo a risk assessment by the Managing Director for Impartiality prior to that relationship being formalized. Any current relationships with companies, organizations and individuals will be assessed on a regular basis to ensure that the relationship does not impact upon the impartiality of the certification of products.
SAAED will not appoint any employee or subcontractor to the certification of products, where any past relationship has existed with the client. Exceptionally and at the discretion of the Certification Manager or Managing Director an individual or subcontractor may be allocated to certification of products where a past relationship has existed but there has been no relationship for a minimum of 2 years.
SAAED does not and will not offer any commission, (‘finders fees or other inducements) to any individual or company in respect of referrals of clients unless:
- The terms and conditions of any such referral are clearly established and can be demonstrated and it can also be demonstrated that the fee is for a referral and the fact that a commission has been paid will in no way affect the outcome of certification of products.
- A risk assessment (to establish the potential for an unacceptable threat to impartiality) has been carried out on the process through which any such payment is made to an individual or organization (normally a consultant) requesting the commission for referrals.
- All such payments are documented, recorded, and traceable and accompanied by a purchase order and invoice.
SAAED will ensure that it is not linked or marketed in any way which links it with the certification of products and will take appropriate action should any such link be identified.
Certification personnel and others involved in the certification of products are not and will not be put under any pressure and will not be influenced in any way to come to a particular conclusion regarding the result of certification of products.
SAAED Impartiality Norms:
SAAED shall not recruit any person, who is relative are working at permanent (Means the client, who is giving regular business) client’s place.
No outsourcing of certification of products, who are already working for that client.
No fees for referral are to be paid to any organization engaged in the similar activities.
Adherence to all accreditation and other SAAED policies.
SAAED shall not carry–out any other conflicting services other than its core business of certification of products.
SAAED shall not employ any professional conflicting its ethical policies.
SAAED shall not allow any of its certification personnel to market the services offered by organization. Only the dedicated personnel will be allowed for marketing of the services.
SAAED shall not allow any of its Certification personnel to carry out financial transactions with clients / subcontractors.
All employees of SAAED shall disclose any situation impairing the business ethics.
SAAED will allocate the work to its certification personnel considering the defined time period. No over work / load will be given, which can cause chances of compromising the certification of products.
Any unethical practice observed should be notified to the management at the earliest.
SAAED shall not allow any of its personnel to accept any gifts from client / subcontractor.
SAAED shall not allow any Certification personnel to conduct certification activities for the organization where any of its family members / close relatives are involved at a decision-making position.
Staff is prohibited from participating in the Certification of products of any organization to which they have given assistance, by training, or where they have any financial or commercial interest for a minimum period of 2 years prior to the date of application of the organization for registration.
SAAED direct employees are prohibited from engaging in consultancy activities, which involve the active manufacture / maintenance.
SAAED recognizes that the source of revenue is the client paying for certification of products, and that this is a potential threat to impartiality. Therefore, SAAED is a self-financed independent organization, with a number of controls to ensure that impartiality is retained. To obtain and maintain confidence, it is essential that SAAED certification decisions are based on objective evidence of conformity or nonconformity, and that any decisions made are not influenced by other interests or by other parties. Decision on Inspection of product as well as decision on granting of Certificate of conformity are made and signed for by an Authorized person, who was not responsible for such activities, where there are chances of potential conflict of interest. SAAED recognizes that threats to impartiality include the following.
- Self–interest threats arising from a person acting in their own interest.
- Self–review threats arising from a person reviewing the work that they have conducted themselves.
- Familiarity (or trust) threats arising from a person becoming too familiar with or too trusting of another, instead of seeking audit evidence.
Public Statement (as it appears on SAAED website)
SAAED, its Chief executive officer, Management Representative and Certification Manager, Staff and others involved in the certification of products of Organization fully understand the importance of impartiality in undertaking its Certification of products.
SAAED will therefore ensure that in its dealings with clients or potential clients, all employees or other personnel involved in Certification of products are, and will remain, impartial.
To ensure that impartiality is both maintained and can be demonstrated, SAAED has identified, and risk assessed all relationships which may result in a conflict of interest or pose a threat to impartiality.
SAAED will ensure that it is not linked or marketed in any way which links it with the certification of products and will take appropriate action should any such link be identified.
Certification personnel and others involved in the certification of products are not and will not be put under any pressure and will not be influenced in any way to come to a particular conclusion regarding the result of certification of products.
The integrity and independence of the inspection body is also ensured by the fact that they are in no way involved in the development, production, installation, sale, or maintenance of products / services by any of the subsidiaries and from the own company divisions.
In order to ensure the full compliance to this policy, we are obliged to ensure that we will not be engaging in any activities that may conflict with our independence of judgment and integrity in relation to our inspection activities and we will not be engaging in the design, manufacture, supply, installation, purchase, ownership, use or maintenance of such items inspected under our scope of work.
Decisions of the inspection body of SAAED are based on objective proofs of conformity (or non-conformity) which are established by the body; they are not influenced by other interests or other parties. They are independent of any kind of pressure of commercial, financial, or other nature.
The basis for the appraisal, certification, inspection, monitoring and testing as laid down in the company statutes are the relevant directives, laws, and ordinances as well as national and international standards and internal company standards/ procedures.
The inspection services are available to all customers and are applied without discrimination by ensuring our impartiality policy all the time.
This policy is made available to all employees, the interested parties, subcontractors/ suppliers, or any other
relevant agencies are needed/ where applicable.
SAAED is committed to achieve total client satisfaction by implementing ISO/IEC 17020 and ISO/IEC 17065 for the product certification that we offer. SAAED will achieve this by:
- Establishing good professional practices and provide quality services to clients,
- Maintaining accuracy, precision, and reliability of certification services through maintaining standards,
- Maintaining competence of personnel, impartiality, and consistent operation of certification activities,
- Adoption and maintenance of an international quality management system in accordance with ISO/IEC 17020 and ISO/IEC 17065,
- Encouraging and welcoming client feedback to proactively improve our performance and quality of services,
- Familiarizing all employees with relevant documents,
- Complying with ISO/IEC 17020 and ISO/IEC 17065 and continually mproving the effectiveness of the management system through regular review.
This policy is applicable for the formations of following committee:
- Impartiality committee, and
- Certification committeeCEO based on the approval of Board of Directors forms / constitutes both the committee.
Impartiality committee
Chairman appoints two members for the Impartiality committee from the board of directors of SAAED, who are not involved in the certification activities. The initial impartiality committee appointed by management will review the objectives, elect the chairman and plan for further activities. Committee will identify the need for involvement of more persons in the committee based on the workload and then will appoint new members after receiving request from the
management. Impartiality committee will act as an impartially and independent body with no single interest predominating, to assist in the formulation of policy matters relating to Certification Scheme and its further
implementation.The Chairman of impartiality committee issues the request letters to the probable members by giving the details of the
Certification process and expectations from the committee members.The Committee comprises suitably qualified persons with technical expertise, representing various interests, in a
balanced manner, who are nominated by the professional institutions, industry associations and users.The Impartiality Committee meets at least twice in a year and additionally, as, and when required by the SAAED Management. The Impartiality Committee will at the request of SAAED. Board of Directors, consider and approve the expansion of the Committee by inclusion of additional members to represent the industry scope sectors for which accreditation is required from the accreditation bodies. The nomination of additional members shall ensure the balanced representation of various interests without any single interest to predominate. Access to all the information necessary to enable it to fulfill its functions as per the defined impartiality policy Annexure-1A. In the event of any existing Committee member’s resignation or inability to continue to undertake the functional responsibilities as per the terms representing the same scope sector and interests without disturbing the balance between various interests.The Management Representative attends the meeting in an ex official capacity but does not have the right to vote. The Impartiality Committee has constituted separate Experts Panels comprising experts in each panel specializing in their
area of expertise to assist the Committee, as and when required, in their respective area of expertise.
The terms of reference of the Impartiality Committee, as follows.
- To formally approve the Impartiality Policy,
- To review and approve any proposed changes in the Rules and Regulations covering Certification Scheme.
- To provide general advice as and when required, in all matters relating to the proper implementation of the certification scheme including the mode and frequency of assessments in compliance with the requirements.
- To exercise an overview of continual financial viability of Certification Scheme and discuss the fee structure with the management to ensure that certification operations remain independent of any commercial pressures.
- The Impartiality Committee would verify operating accounts and discuss financial resources, if necessary, with the CEO of SAAED, who is a nonvoting member of the Impartiality Committee.
- Review the developments in the product certification and related fields in its operation and to provide unsolicited advice to the Board of Directors with a view to ensuring Impartiality and competence in the application of certification services in specified sectors.
- To act as an Appellant Body and to nominate members with appropriate qualifications to constitute an Appeals Panel at the request of the CEO, as and when an appeal is lodged against any decision of the Certification committee, in respect of the certification scheme.
- To decide whether any advice rendered, unsolicited or otherwise, in respect of the content and implementation of the certification activities is considered binding on SAAED for adoption within its certification scheme.
- To provide guidance for use of and meanings of the certificate, statements, and logo.
- To refer to the Accreditation body any inconsistency observed in the implementation of Certification Scheme approved by it, after taking due note of the reasons provided by SAAED where any recommendations made by the Impartiality Committee are not accepted by SAAED.
- Members of the Impartiality Committee and Appeals Panel will observe the confidentiality as per confidentiality policy Annexure-1B.
- The term of appointment of each member will be for a period of 3 years from the date of the nomination which may be extended for a further period of one year. The nominating organization may re-nominate the existing member or nominate a new member after the maximum term of 4 years.
- At least one third of the total number of the committee members are required to be present to constitute a quorum of holding a meeting. It shall be ensured that members constituting the minimum number required for quorum provide a balance of interests between the suppliers and the users.
- The Impartiality Committee shall elect a Chairman out of its members by simple majority vote. The Chairman will hold office for a period of three year but may be re-elected for a further term of one year.
- The minutes of the meeting shall be recorded and confirmed by the Chairman about the accuracy and content before being circulated to the members for comments and approval at the next meeting.
- To formally approve and accept the appointments of Senior Executives e.g., Certification Manager. The above terms of reference and procedure for the nomination of the Impartiality Committee will not be amended or altered without prior reference to the accreditation body.
- The Impartiality committee has the accessibility to all the relevant information as necessary to enable it to fulfill its function.
- Impartiality Committee reviews the overall performance of the SAAED on annual basis to check – Internal Audit / management review / external audit observations and findings / risk assessment / certification files / Auditor performance.
- Impartiality Committee responsible to provide inputs to any tendency to allow commercial or other considerations to prevent the consistent impartial provision of certification activities;
- Impartiality Committee responsible to provide inputs to matters affecting impartiality and confidence in certification, including openness.
- If the top management of SAAED does not follow the input of this policy, the committee formation shall have the right to take independent action.
Certification committee
CEO will be the head of the certification committee and followings are full time members of the committee.
- Certification Manager,
The roles and responsibility of certification committee is defined in the job description and will act accordingly. CEO is permanent Chairman of the Certification Committee. This committee is formed and will be there throughout. The decision on the certification will be taken by CEO based on the recommendation of the Certification Manager. The certification committee will jointly decide on granting, maintaining, extending, or reducing the scope of suspending withdrawing, or refusing certification. Certification scheme is decided and is approved by CEO after review and approval of the Impartiality committee.