As I reported, China is implementing new ISO certification rules aimed at curbing corruption and ensuring more objective, impartial audits. Chinese scammers and CB reps are flipping out about this on Chinese social media, like WeChat and Xiaohongshu (Rednote), realizing they have only until the end of the month to keep issuing rubber-stamp certificates.
The move by China appears bold and decisive, and is backed up by strict criminal penalties for scammers who violate them. Sure, it seems bold, but that’s only because everywhere else on the planet, governments are doing the opposite and enabling certification scams. What China is doing is the bare minimum that every other government should be doing.
The changes in China are expected to add between 20 – 30% to the cost of ISO certification. That’s a good thing, in my view, as it filters out the companies looking for cheap, overnight certifications. But China is explicitly focused on battling scams and corruption within the accredited certification scheme; they are not particularly concerned about what it will cost if it means the scheme’s credibility is improved.
Over in the aerospace industry, however, the IAQG set an entirely different set of priorities. In response to China’s move, the IAQG issued a statement reminding folks that no matter what happens in China, companies are still expected to pay IAQG. Yes, their focus is solely on their own revenue and has nothing to do with ensuring airplanes don’t crash.
I don’t know why the IAQG would expect any CB to request a “waiver or discount” due to the China changes, and the argument makes no sense on its face. Furthermore, their Fee Schedule (PDF) really doesn’t suggest anything China has done would affect anything, anyway.
It does show the priorities in play here, though. The IAQG has begun to embrace price gouging and expensive add-on fees, and has begun treating itself as a for-profit entity. All this money flows between IAQG and SAE, which is run by PRI (the Nadcap people), as well as their “approved” training bodies like Probitas, so it’s all going to the same handful of people. None of these fees are justified by the services provided by IAQG or any of the AS9100 certification bodies, but you’re stuck paying them anyway.
Meanwhile, the last hope for any credibility within the ISO scheme appears to rest with China. But that country has no interest in improving the scheme outside of its borders, and is probably very happy to see greed wipe out the validity of ISO certifications around the world anyway. All that will be left is “Made in China,” which now suggests high quality, and is not the insult it was just ten years ago.
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
