Oxebridge has confirmed with a number of US TAG 176 members that they were not aware Alka Jarvis and Paul Palmes had been working on a joint project to publish a book on ISO 9001:2015 with Prentice Hall. Some of the members polled included others within the TAG leadership itself. It is likely that had the relationship been known to the membership, it may have impacted on the eventual election of Mr. Palmes to succeed Ms. Jarvis as TAG Chair.
Alka Jarvis was the US TAG 176 Chair since 2005, and stepped down in 2016 due to term limits; it was recently revealed that Ms. Jarvis had personally approached Paul Palmes to replace her, and the Nominating Committee then put Mr. Palmes’ name on the ballot. That in itself was a violation of ANSI TAG rules, which require the 3-person Nominating Committee to make the nominations, and not the outgoing Chair acting alone. It was then discovered that Ms. Jarvis and Mr. Palmes were co-authoring a book on ISO 9001:2015, which was then published in December by Pearson’s imprint, Prentice Hall.
Oxebridge has confirmed with the publisher that the final manuscript was likely received from the authors in November in order to meet the fast-tracked December publication of the e-book version, meaning that Ms. Jarvis and Mr. Palmes would have been writing the book during the October elections. An error in the book itself hints that the authors may have already been collaborating even earlier, prior to Ms. Jarvis’ nomination of Mr. Palmes, since the book incorrectly quotes the definition of “process” from the FDIS version of the standard and not the final IS release.
The arrangement presents a significant problem for the already beleaguered TAG leadership. If confirmed, it means that not only did Ms. Jarvis select the one US TAG member — out of over 240 possible choices — which whom she had a pre-existing financial arrangement, she and Mr. Palmes then actively hid that arrangement from the TAG members during the vote.
The US TAG is currently processing a formal complaint, called an “appeal” under ANSI rules, alleging the election and other actions by the Jarvis-led leadership amount to cronyism and abuse of power. The TAG has thirty days to respond to the complaint. While both the international TC 176 central secretariat and ISO itself have declined to take action against ANSI or the US TAG, a high ranking ISO representative told Oxebridge that US appears unique in the level of cronyism evident in the TAG 176 actions as compared to other nations A representative from South Africa told Oxebridge, “I am shocked to see such undemocratic behaviour coming from the US, which is supposed to be the symbol of democracy for the rest of the world.”
A separate investigation is underway regarding fundraising conducted by the TAG, which sought $50,000 donations to fund a TAG event that never took place. It is unclear what happened with the money, and if it may have thus been used in some way to help TAG leaders promote their publications or private consulting practices.
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
