Statement of Impartiality

QA considers that impartiality and avoiding conflict of interest are of primary importance to maintain the confidence of all our stakeholders in the services that we provide. Impartiality is one of the significant requirements of certification and is of highest importance in maintaining the trust that stakeholders should expect from our certifications.

QA is fully committed and strongly follows to the requirement of ISO/IEC 17021 “Requirements for Bodies Providing Audit and Certification of Management Systems” that certification shall be undertaken impartially, and the maintenance of impartiality is a key priority at all levels within QA.

QA is organized in a way to safeguard impartiality and not to get affected by means of any commercial, financial, or any other pressures. The QA Executive Management ensures a balanced representation of interested parties with no single party predominating.

QA provides external training services in certification associated activities. In order not to compromise its impartiality and status in training service delivery, QA offers generic training courses and does not give specific advice for the development of an organization’s operations related to certification. Also, the training courses delivered are not a prerequisite of certification, neither do they guarantee QA certification.

QA does not engage in any activities which could compromise its impartiality; it does not provide consultancy or internal audit to the clients, nor we have links with bodies providing consultancy to the clients, and we do not promote the services of any such bodies.

The impartiality and objectivity of the certification services that QA provides is strongly controlled and all QA personnel and externally contracted auditors, as well as QA committees’ members, are required to declare any potential conflicts of interest. QA takes full regard of this information to ensure the objectivity of the services that we provide. certification decisions are made by competent persons independent of the assessment of the clients.

QA evaluates potential risks to its impartiality on an on-going basis to safeguarding Impartiality, using several mechanisms including internal audit, management review and consultation with appropriate interested parties. Where any such risks are identified, QA applies appropriate measures in place to eliminate or minimize them. These measures are monitored for effectiveness. If customers or any other stakeholders have concerns regarding the impartiality or objectivity of QA processes, then they may submit complaint or appeal as per our defined approach.

If a member of the audit or certification team, or their immediate family member, has a direct financial interest, or a material indirect financial interest, in the measured entity, this creates a self-interest threat and the actions to be taken would be one of the following:

• Dispose of the direct financial interest prior to the individual being selected for the verification
• Dispose of the indirect financial interest in total or dispose of an amount of the interest to ensure that the remaining interest is no longer material prior to the individual selected for the verification
• Advise the individual that they will not be selected for this verification

All QA staff must declare any situation which may potentially be considered a conflict including any relationships over and above financial.