Oxebridge has filed back-to-back complaints against ISO certification bodies Amtivo and Intertek alleging conflicts of interest and failure to manage risks to impartiality. Both companies were found to be engaged in practices that appear to violate ISO 17021-1 rules against offering consulting services while selling impartial, third-party conformity assessment services.
The rules in ISO 17021-1 are intended to ensure that CBs do not find themselves in a situation where they are auditing their own work or products, which raises questions of independence and impartiality.
Nevertheless, both firms appear to have violated those rules. Intertek hired a President from its consulting wing. Intertek Alchemy, so that she now holds executive roles in both companies simultaneously. ISO 17021-1 specifically calls out the existence of shared management between a CB and consultancy as a “threat to impartiality” that must be avoided.
Amtivo’s efforts to circumvent ISO 17021-1 appear to be more overt. On multiple websites in a number of countries, Amtivo sells a consulting product called Activ Certify, which it promises will replace the need to hire a consultant. It then links that product with its own ISO 9001 certification services, insisting that Activ Certify will make the process of certification faster and cheaper.
ISO 17021-1 specifically prohibits such arrangements, saying that a “certification body shall not state or imply that certification would be simpler, easier, faster or less expensive if a specified consultancy organization were used.” The Activ Certify software product produces template QMS procedures, document control modules, and other major aspects of a QMS which Amtivo would later audit.
It is unlikely that Amtivo would ever write a nonconformity against a client’s Activ Certify system, since it would be denouncing its own product. Likewise, Intertek would be unlikely to write findings against a client’s training if they used Intertek Alchemy products.
Each complaint was filed separately and copies to the accreditation bodies involved: UKAS (UK), ANAB (USA), and INAB (Ireland.)
A copy of each complaint may be downloaded here:
Oxebridge files complaints on behalf of stakeholders and the public in order to ensure compliance by the CBs and ABs to accreditation rules. By doing so, Oxebridge aims to improve the validity of ISO certificates and ensure the public’s safety.
