The floodgates of corruption have been flung open, thanks to the refusal by the IAF — now rebranded as “GACI” — to uphold ISO 17021-1 rules on certification bodies. Joining the other major internal CBs that have abandoned compliance with 17021-1 rules against providing consulting, TUV Rheinland has just announced that it has purchased the consulting company QSG (Quality Support Group).
QSG provides consulting and implementation, including document development and internal audits, for ISO 9001 and other standards. With the acquisition of QSG, TUV Rheinland is now openly violating ISO 17021-1 rules, which prohibit CBs from providing consulting services, including, specifically, internal auditing for clients. This means that TUV Rheinland will eventually be performing audits — and issuing certificates for — its own consulting work.
The full announcement appeared in an email signed jointly by TUV’s Farhan Ahmed and QSG CEO, Angelo Scangas. Ahmed holds the title of “Head of North America – Consulting, Training & Customized Services (People & Business Assurance),” a title which, itself, throws contempt at the requirement that CBs not perform consulting.
In prior years, only certificate mills and third-world scammer CBs operated consulting companies, often getting away with it due to the inability of IAF member accreditation bodies to manage the smaller bodies. Now, however, major certification bodies such as Intertek, Bureau Veritas, Amtivo, BSI, Quality Austria, and LRQA, all now openly operate consulting companies or sell consulting services and products.
Ironically, a request for clarification on the TUV matter sent to ANAB’s Lori Gillespie and R. Doug Leonard resulted in “out of office” auto-replies, as the ANAB overseers are all busy at a “Conformity Assessment” conference… charging people money to teach them how to do the thing that ANAB refuses to actually do.
Even ABs, like ANAB, UKAS, A2LA, and others, have abandoned compliance with ISO 17011 and now offer training, credentialing, and consulting to the clients they later accredit. One of the Board members for the accreditation body IAS was found to be selling ISO 17021-1 template kits to bodies that IAS later accredited.
The IAF has refused to take action, sending a green light signal to ABs and CBs to violate the rules at will. These moves all violate EU law, too, but the IAF member tasked with enforcing that law — the European co-operation for Accreditation (EA) — has been complicit in the fraud, refusing to process complaints or take action.
The rough excuse trotted out by some CBs and ABs is that the consulting companies are somehow different companies, and not actually related to the parent CB or AB. Routinely, this is debunked by legal structure filings and the bodies’ own marketing, but the argument seems to be enough for the IAF to hand-wave away the problem.
Another defense is that an invisible “risk assessment” is performed, showing how the CB or AB mitigates the risks posed by conflicts of interest. But these assessments are confidential and never shared publicly. In many cases, they do not appear to actually exist, but instead are merely name-dropped as a defense, and never actually produced.
The new IAF organization, called GACI (and, yes, pronounced like the serial killer’s last name), runs the risk of running afoul of New Zealand law if it does not take action. GACI obtained tax-exempt, nonprofit status in that country after filing official representations that it upholds ISO 17021-1. If regulators in that country notice that GACI made these claims fraudulently — and that it actually works to help members violate ISO 17021-1, then it could lose its status and face criminal action.
GACI, like IAF, is run by Victor Gandy of Virginia, and money flows to him through his shell company, Axis Mundi.
I suspect the bodies will induce ISO CASCO to strip out the consulting prohibitions entirely from the ISO 17000 series standards, but so far there has been no visible movement on that front. It is the only way forward, though.
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
