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Complaints Filed Against RABQSA, Allege ISO 17024 Violations
Posted:
Jul 7, 2005 11:04 PM
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(Reprinted here in its entirety, with permission.-- CP)
July 7, 2005
Winter Haven FL --- An investigation performed by Oxebridge Quality Resources has resulted in the filing of two formal complaints against RABQSA International, the ISO 17024 accredited auditor certification body which was formed by the merger of RAB and QSA in early 2005. The complaints were issued to RABQSA's CEO Michael Carmody on July 7th.
The first complaint alleges failure by RABQSA to abide by the requirements of ISO 17024 and related governing documents which aim to prevent conflicts of interest between personnel certification companies and related bodies. Specifically, the Oxebridge complaint cited the decision by RABQSA to automatically accept the ASQ Certified Quality Auditor credential as part of its own QMS Auditor certification. Oxebridge alleges this is a violation of ISO 17024 because ASQ holds management control over RABQSA and ASQ's Chief Executive is a permanent member of the RABQSA Board of Directors. ISO 17024 aims to prevent certification companies from giving any special consideration to "related bodies" or their services, in order to maintain the objectivity and integrity of such certifications.
In the first complaint, Oxebridge also alleges other conflicts of interest, including the failure by RABQSA to disclose the role of Malcolm Linn on its Board of Directors. Linn is the General Manager of AgriQuality Ltd, an Australian firm that was mentioned frequently in RABQSA official press releases as a company "engaging" RABQSA in certification development activities. Because the press releases were intended to instill confidence in RABQSA programs, and thereby drive international adoption of them, the failure to reveal that Linn was also a board member may be seen as a further violation of 17024.
The second complaint alleges that RABQSA failed to meet multiple requirements of ISO 17024 with regard to the development and use of "scheme committees." Scheme committees are required by ISO 17024 to ensure that personnel certification programs, such as RABQSA's Quality Management System Auditor certification program, are developed with the proper input of industry and related "concerned parties." Despite the full worldwide release of accredited auditor certification schemes by RABQSA earlier this year, Oxebridge's investigation discovered that the required committees were never properly formed, and that the Management System Auditor sub-scheme committee has not been populated, and as a result never held a single meeting. RABQSA press releases revealed that meetings had been scheduled in late 2004, but Oxebridge learned that these sessions were cancelled and postponed indefinitely by Cindy Miller, RABQSA's Director of Industry Services. According to documents received by Oxebridge as of July 6, the Management System Auditor sub-scheme committee remains unpopulated, save for the appointment of consultant Scott Weyburn to the position of Chairman. Weyburn confirmed to Oxebridge that the committees have not yet been populated or utilized to date.
This runs counter to public statements made by Carmody in April at the ISO 9001 Summit in Atlanta. During a panel session hosted by Quality Systems Update, Carmody said, "In the design and development phase ... we sat
down with both industry and our CBs and training providers, etc. a couple of years ago.... We set out working with each of our scheme committees in quality, environment, OHS and food safety...." According to RABQSA documents and reports by Weyburn and others, this is not true.
The alleged failure of RABQSA to form and implement scheme committees may be problematic since the organization is currently selling a fully-implemented QMS Auditor Certification scheme and is marketing it as accredited to ISO 17024 by the Joint Accreditation Society of Australia and New Zealand (JAS-ANZ). How JAS-ANZ accredited the program is uncertain, and requests for a copy of RABQSA's accreditation certification have gone unanswered by JAS-ANZ, despite confirmation of their receipt.
Carmody has publicly chided standards users for failing to submit formal complaints to RABQSA in the past, saying, "The minute we start to formalize that process in terms of putting it in writing and send it through...we find that many people are not willing to commit themselves to paper." The Oxebridge complaints will be a test of RABQSA's commitment to resolving such issues under the requirements of ISO 17024, which requires RABQSA to process the complaints in a timely fashion, utilizing a formal internal complaints handling process. Oxebridge is reserving the right to escalate the complaints to JAS-ANZ and/or the International Accreditation Forum if a timely and satisfactory result is not forthcoming.
Copies of the complaints may be viewed here and here.
The issuing of complaints against registration and accreditation bodies is only one part of Oxebridge's Advocacy '05 Initiative, which seeks to improve the entire ISO 9001 implementation and certification scheme.
Oxebridge does not provide any service subject to RABQSA accreditation, and does not provide any service that competes with RABQSA in any way. Oxebridge does not stand to benefit from the complaints, no matter what the outcome.
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