Blog & News Posts

NEWS

UKAS Responds to Elevated Complaint, Sides with BSI

The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) has determined that the practices and products of ISO 9001 registrar BSI do not present a conflict of interest as they do not rise to the definition of “consulting.” UKAS issued this ruling as part of a response to a complaint elevated to it by Oxebridge, which alleged widespread violations of ISO 17021 rules requiring a separation between consulting and certification auditing activities.

Smithers Complaint Escalated to ANAB

The complaint filed against Smithers Quality Assessment has been escalated to ANAB, after Smithers failed to conduct any corrective action.

Minor Tweak Would Allow All 20,000 ISO Standards to be Used for Certification

A seemingly minor and administrative interpretation of a decades-old regulation is now opening up every ISO “deliverable” for usage as a third party certification standard, a move which could mean millions — if not billions — of dollars in additional revenue for Certification and Accreditation Bodies.

Ambit Group Awards ISO / CMMI Contract to Oxebridge

The Ambit Group has awarded a contract for implementation of an integrated IT services management system to Oxebridge Quality Resources International. The resulting system will be compliant to three standards: ISO 9001, ISO 20000 and CMMI-SVC.

Dutch Certificate Mill QualityMasters Agrees to Certify “Death Jackets”

In a follow up to the recent story wherein a number of US certificate mills agreed to provide ISO 9001 certification services to a fictional company that designed cement life vests under the company name “LifeSink,” now the Dutch certificate mill QualityMasters has likewise agreed.

Obama Risk Advisor Dropped from G31000 Speaker Lineup

The senior advisor on risk management to US President Barack Obama has been dropped from the list of speakers at the upcoming G31000 international conference, presumably after it was revealed she had purchased an unaccredited risk credential from the group.

OPINION

The Guberman PMC – Daryl Guberman Ethics Omnibus

Over the years, the number of ethical violations exhibited by Daryl Guberman, Felice Guberman and Don Labelle with their certification mill operation "Guberman-PMC LLC" (aka G-PMC LLC, aka G-PMC Registrars LLC) have become mountainous. To keep it all straight, here is...

What A Better Third-Party ISO 9001 Audit Might Look Like… and Cost

There is much discussion over whether the current third party conformity assessment structure is effective for ISO 9001 end users and their customers. So let’s spitball a little… what might a more robust audit program look like, and what would it cost end users?

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