On November 17, Oxebridge issued an open letter to David Felinski, the President of the International Federation of Standards Users (IFAN). Oxebridge is a former corporate member of IFAN. IFAN purports to represent the needs of standards users, worldwide, but has been criticized for working to market ISO standards, rather than to improve them for the benefit of users.
Nearly one month later, Mr. Felinski has not replied.
The letter is reproduced here in its entirety:
Mr. Felinski:
My organization (Oxebridge) was a member of IFAN for a number of years, until we left under the realization that IFAN was not succeeding in its stated mandate to represent standards users. Since that time, we have uncovered more and more evidence of ISO having abandoned its adherence to its own policies and principles, as well as directly violating WTO TBT regulations, all in order to rush standards to print. ISO is, despite all bluster otherwise, simply a publishing company. It’s motivations and actions are driven for one purpose: to push paper. It does not develop standards: it is a vanity press that publishes the intellectual property of other people, and then charges them for the privilege.
Few organizations stand in the way of ISO continuing this trend. ANSI (in the US) refuses to investigate, nor to file a formal grievance with WTO to investigate; this is because ANSI, too, profits when it re-brands ISO standards and sells them as US National Standards. They have abdicated their responsibility, too.
Standards users, meanwhile, are frustrated with ISO and ANSI standards, especially the flagship standards for management systems. More and more companies are dropping these standards, while the OEMs and primes return to a 1960-style program of redundant, competing and wasteful second party audits to endless customer requirements. One has to close their eyes very strongly to not see this pattern exploding.
In response, ISO has taken on a policy to bully, harass and even threaten frivolous litigation against those who ask it to comply with its own Directives, and those of WTO.
Again, few organizations stand to influence ISO with any authority; fewer still represent standards users. IFAN, on the other hand, does. And yet we see year after year of IFAN simply carrying ISO’s water, enabling the growing corruption to continue, and ignoring the will of standards users. IFAN’s membership suffers.
I ask you, personally, to take this on as a new IFAN initiative. ISO must be challenged in a professional but firm manner, which may mean appealing to WTO or other sources, to bring it back into compliance. I’m open to hearing your view and whether IFAN is up to the challenge.
Respectfully,
Christopher Paris
VP Operations
Oxebridge Quality Resources International LLC
