Two weeks after a public statement declaring it would immediately “withdraw” all AS9100 certificates for Russian companies, the official OASIS database continues to display the companies as certified.
On March 9, IAQG President Andy Maher of BAE Systems announced that, “IAQG will not conduct oversight nor engage with entities in Russia, [and] AS9100, 9110 and 9120 Quality Certificates with Russian entities are no longer recognized and access to the OASIS data base shall be withdrawn.” Despite this promise, the OASIS database continues to list nearly 100 Russian companies as certified, as well as one from Belarus.
Partial screenshot of OASIS showing current Russian entries. [Source]
The scandal shows just how little authority so-called accreditation oversight bodies like IAF and IAQG have over their members, who willfully ignore industry-wide dictates with impunity. Bodies like Bureau Veritas, one of the largest certification bodies on the planet, are treated as “too big to fail,” and are not under any actual risk of losing accreditation no matter what level of malfeasance they engage in. If an accreditation body like UKAS or ANAB were to de-accredit Bureau Veritas, the AB would instantly lose a significant portion of its annual revenue.
What is troubling is that IAQG manages OASIS, and even if bodies like Bureau Veritas or Quality Austria refuse the order to de-certify their clients, IAQG could — at least — remove the entries from OASIS. The inability to do so points to bureaucratic waste and general incompetence over the management of OASIS, or suggests that IAQG never intended to de-certify Russian companies at all.
IAQG, meanwhile, refuses to respond to both formal and informal emails and filings on any subject related to its oversight powers. At a recent public event, IAQG officials intentionally blocked a question posed by Oxebridge founder Christopher Paris about the group’s inability to enforce current accreditation rules. Maher has blocked all communication between himself and Oxebridge for at least two years, and refuses to respond to questions.
As a result, the IAQG continues to flout international law and sanctions, and appears to have issued the March 9th press release purely to give the illusion of compliance.
UPDATE 24 March: the IAQG has released Resolution 161 related to their announcement, which includes the following text:
Aerospace Quality Management System (AQMS) certified organizations that are located, or have sites, in the Russian Federation will no longer have an AQMS certification recognized by the IAQG. AQMS certificates that are no longer recognized will appear as suspended within the IAQG On-line Aerospace Supplier Information System (OASIS) database. Certification Bodies (CBs) that are located in the Russian Federation shall be suspended from the ICOP certification scheme. In addition, AQMS Auditors that reside within the Russian Federation shall also be suspended from the IAQG ICOP certification scheme.
However, OASIS has still not been updated, and the IAQG gives AS9100 certification bodies until April 1 to suspend their Russian clients.
