What a week for the accreditation bodies! First, ANAB gets caught shilling for a consulting company, then they go ahead and market “custom, tailored” classes for the stuff they accredit. Then UAF refuses to produce evidence it’s an actual US not-for-profit company, setting them up for potential tax fraud. It’s almost as if no one is overseeing the ABs to ensure they comply with ISO 17011!
Now enter UKAS, which doesn’t want to be left out of this party. For this one, we have to jump in our TARDIS and do some time traveling, though.
Back in 2019, the Indian consulting company Vibrant Consultancy was caught issuing consulting quotes that simultaneously included pricing for ISO certification to be issued by the UK-based certification body URS (United Register of Systems). In fact, we caught a few Indian companies doing that, suggesting URS isn’t really managing its foreign branches. Well, the complainant in that case (not Oxebridge, someone else) filed the matter with URS, who allegedly blew it off. The complainant then, in 2023, escalated it to UKAS. And UKAS did what UKAS does, and ignored its one job — to enforce ISO 17025 on CBs — and instead came up with a batshit excuse to let URS off the hook.
According to UKAS rep Charlie Bowen, his “Customer Feedback Manager” — who I’m pretty sure is Jackie Burton — said there was no issue here because… well, just read it:
The quote may indicate a conflict of interest, but it is also not unusual for the consultant to quote for both consultancy and UKAS certification. It is likely they provide the consultancy then charge a fee to work with URS to undertake the certification side independently. However, it does depend on who is providing what and when, and the quote doesn’t really specify this.
There is no indication that URS is involved at this time, or they have done anything wrong, so we would need some sort of evidence that Vibrant as the consultancy has direct links with and is working on behalf of URS. The quote is not sufficient for this, so if you have anything else indicating a conflict of interest, please provide this, as we need more detail to show there is a definite link (contractual or via personnel) between URS and Vibrant.
Now, this is a stretch even by the crayon-eating, bat-head-biting standards of UKAS and its ilk. Sure, CBs are not supposed to have contracts with consulting companies to co-market their services, because that’s a conflict of interest. But ISO 17011 goes much further and says the CB must also work to stop any consulting companies from using their names in vain, too. Have a look:
5.2.9: The certification body’s activities shall not be marketed or offered as linked with the activities of an organization that provides management system consultancy. The certification body shall take action to correct inappropriate links or statements by any consultancy organization stating or implying that certification would be simpler, easier, faster or less expensive if the certification body were used.
That’s pretty damn clear, which makes the UKAS response all the more baffling. First of all, on what planet of volcanic corruption is it OK for a consulting company to “provide [consulting] and then charge a fee to work with URS to undertake the certification side independently.” That’s literally not independent, you blithering morons! It’s a financial conflict of interest of the highest order!! In fact, ISO 17021 has something to say about that, too:
5.2.7 Where a client has received management systems consultancy from a body that has a relationship with a certification body, this is a significant threat to impartiality.
So let me put this another way that UKAS might understand. Let’s say Oxebridge (as in, me) does consulting for, I dunno, SpaceX, and I charge them $10,000 (Elon’s cheap) to implement ISO 9001. Then, I make a deal with Intertek to do the audit, but I tell them they will only get the SpaceX contract if they give me $100,000 (to make up for Elon being cheap.) Now, Intertek comes in and does the audit of my consulting work. You think they are going to write findings against me? I just handed them the fucking contract for SpaceX, and they paid me for it! If they write me up now, I could sue their sorry asses! So what will happen instead is Intertek will come in and give SpaceX a green light no matter what shape their system is in. (And then Elon celebrates by running his fat ass around naked at Burning Man, scaring the children.)*
In fact, clause 4.2.4 of ISO 17021 specifically calls this arrangement a “threat to impartiality“:
A concern related to certification, as a threat to impartiality, is financial self-interest.
URS is absolutely, 100%, completely, in-every-way-imaginable responsible for telling Vibrant to stop marketing its services. And UKAS is supposed to ensure that, or strip URS of its accreditation. In fact, UKAS should have probably investigated to see how many URS certificates were issued to Vibrant consulting clients… you know, go find the evidence instead of telling the complainant to do their job for them.
By UKAS’ inaction, URS can just sit by silently letting Vibrant sell its stuff, feigning ignorance because they don’t have a “contract” with them to do so. Really, UKAS? You think these companies put their fraud in a contract?
So I filed a complaint with UKAS on their clearly-negligent interpretation of ISO 17011 back in August of 2023. Unfortunately, I sent it to Burton who — as Is aid — is probably the nutter who came up with this excuse. So what happened?
Of course, UKAS never even acknowledged the complaint. So long as they never acknowledge receipt, they don’t have to fix the problem. And that means they can keep billing URS for their protection money, and the Indians can continue scamming people all day long. Who cares if defective products get sold under an ISO certificate? So long as that snake-handler Matt Gantley gets paid, all is well!
So I’ve just sent them a tickler on the issue, and we will see if they respond or if I have to escalate this up to the next level of window-lickers, the IAF regional body EA.
Am I the only guy doing the ABs’ job these days?
(* Note: I did implement the QMS at SpaceX, but their CB wasn’t Intertek. It was NSF-ISR which proved to be an entire other shit-show.)
UPDATE 18 June 2024: The matter has been escalated to UKAS’ oversight body, EA. Read more here.
UPDATE 17 July 2024: EA has closed the complaint without any action against UKAS. Read more here.
Christopher Paris is the founder and VP Operations of Oxebridge. He has over 35 years’ experience implementing ISO 9001 and AS9100 systems, and helps establish certification and accreditation bodies with the ISO 17000 series. He is a vocal advocate for the development and use of standards from the point of view of actual users. He is the writer and artist of THE AUDITOR comic strip, and is currently writing the DR. CUBA pulp novel series. Visit www.drcuba.world
