{"id":33239,"date":"2025-12-17T04:54:53","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T09:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/?p=33239"},"modified":"2025-12-18T03:53:50","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T08:53:50","slug":"bureau-veritas-north-america-ignores-accreditation-launches-consulting-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/bureau-veritas-north-america-ignores-accreditation-launches-consulting-services\/","title":{"rendered":"Bureau Veritas North America Ignores Accreditation, Launches Consulting Services"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We may be witnessing the end of accreditation as yet another certification body openly violates ISO 17021-1 and launches a consulting service.<\/p>\n<p>Now it&#8217;s Bureau Veritas North America (BVNA), which has just announced its new &#8220;<em>Management System Consulting Services<\/em>.&#8221; The services include all of the offerings explicitly prohibited under 17021, such as performing internal audits and developing management system documentation. The services are then marketed on the very same webpage as BVNA&#8217;s certification services. It is unambiguous, overt, and explicit.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bvnaconsulting3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-33242\" style=\"border: 1px solid #000000;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bvnaconsulting3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"187\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A PDF &#8220;<em>ServiceSheet<\/em>&#8221; then even lists a consulting email for BVNA.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bvnaconsulting2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-33240\" style=\"border: 1px solid #000000;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bvnaconsulting2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"647\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>They then supported that further with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/bureau-veritas-north-america-inc_bureau-veritas-management-system-consulting-activity-7406797468694175744-Uvxj?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop&amp;rcm=ACoAAAQymeABcfCwSHlVEUUPE8chOK-_MieQjQQ\">LinkedIn marketing campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bvnaconsulting1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-33241\" style=\"border: 1px solid #000000;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bvnaconsulting1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"458\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The move appears to be global, as well. Last week I <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/bureau-veritas-just-made-an-entire-infographic-on-how-they-violate-iso-17021-1\/\">reported<\/a> how Bureau Veritas in Myanmar and Thailand were found marketing consulting services alongside their certifications, as well.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>IAF Refuses to Take Action<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Since the original reporting on this, the IAF has formally refused to step in, of course. They are insisting that BVNA is not accredited. And hereis where things get strange.<\/p>\n<p>Another company, Bureau Veritas <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em><strong>Certification<\/strong> <\/em><\/span>North America (BVCNA), is technically the company listed on ANAB&#8217;s scope of accreditation. This is what IAF is hanging its &#8220;<em>Magical Hat of Inaction<\/em>&#8221; on:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bvnaconsulting4.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-33244\" style=\"border: 1px solid #000000;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bvnaconsulting4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"528\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bvnaconsulting5.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-33243\" style=\"border: 1px solid #000000;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bvnaconsulting5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"396\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I spoke to a Business Development representative at BVNA, and got some unusual responses. First, he seemed to say he didn&#8217;t know anything about this decision to launch consulting services and that he had &#8220;<em>asked the exact same question<\/em>&#8221; I did about it. So even BVNA&#8217;s business development team seems to have been kept in the dark about it. I am not naming the guy, since I am pretty sure if anyone at\u00a0<em><strong>any<\/strong><\/em> BV company found out he was answering my questions, he&#8217;d be fired.<\/p>\n<p>Then he switched gears and insisted it was BVCNA that cannot offer consulting, implying (but not stating) that BVNA can. This is consistent with IAF&#8217;s stance.<\/p>\n<p>Except it&#8217;s not that easy. BVCNA and BVNA are <em><strong>essentially the same company<\/strong><\/em>, playing games with corporate filings to get around the ISO 17021 rules.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Same Address, Same Management<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>First of all, both BVCNA and BVNA are operated out of the same Houston street address, and that is the one <em><strong>listed on the ANAB scope of accreditation<\/strong><\/em>. Here is the address for BVNA:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-33285\" style=\"border: 1px solid #000000;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/BVNAaddress.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"382\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And the address for BVCNA:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-33286\" style=\"border: 1px solid #000000;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/BVCNAaddress.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"438\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Next, both companies have the same exact senior management team. Here are listings from official Texas records, showing Heather Bush, Laurent Croguennec, and Renato Catrib in top management roles. First is BVCNA, the body accredited by ANAB:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-33306\" style=\"border: 1px solid #000000;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bvcnamanagement.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"448\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And here is BVNA, showing the same people in the same roles. Again, the addresses are identical, as is the registered agent:<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-33307\" style=\"border: 1px solid #000000;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bvnamanagement.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"742\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Then there is the problem that BVNA and BVCNA have <em><strong>linked their services<\/strong><\/em> and sell them collectively under a single US Federal CAGE code:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-33287\" style=\"border: 1px solid #000000;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bvcnapromo.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"550\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And keep in mind, <em><strong>all<\/strong><\/em> of these companies fall under the global Bureau Veritas mothership organization, which has its headquarters in France.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Both Companies Caught Selling Both Services<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>All of this is moot anyway, since <strong><em>both <\/em><\/strong>websites of <em><strong>both<\/strong> <\/em>companies offer <em><strong>both<\/strong> <\/em>services.<\/p>\n<p>In the CAGE code flyer above, you can see a sentence that says BVCNA (the accredited body) offers &#8220;<em>implementation and maintenance<\/em>&#8221; of the ISO standards. That means consulting.<\/p>\n<p>Here is the BVNA website selling consulting and certification:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-33288\" style=\"border: 1px solid #000000;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bvnaservices.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"219\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And here is the BVCNA website:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-33289\" style=\"border: 1px solid #000000;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bvcnaservices.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"197\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And here is the allegedly unaccredited side, BVNA, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bvna.com\/iso-9001-quality-management-system-certification\">selling certification<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-33290\" style=\"border: 1px solid #000000;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bvna1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"302\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Bureau Veritas joins other fully-accredited CBs\u00a0<span style=\"box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">that have abandoned conformity with ISO 17021-1, such as LRQA, which\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/lrqa-bought-a-consulting-company-because-conflicts-of-interest-are-cool-now\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">purchased ISO 9001 consulting company<\/a> Core Business Solutions, and Intertek, which<\/span>\u00a0pulled the same &#8220;<em>shared management<\/em>&#8221; stunt with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/intertek-consulting-company-shares-same-president-as-intertek-certification-body\/\">its consulting wing<\/a>. IAF and the accreditation bodies refused to take action in those cases, as well.<\/p>\n<p>It now seems that to get around ISO 17021, all a company has to do is open another company with one word in the name changed, and that&#8217;s it. ISO 17021, meanwhile, says something different:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>5.2.5 The certification body and any part of the same legal entity and any entity under the organizational control of the certification body shall not offer or provide management system consultancy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As for the Bureau Veritas business development representative, he said I was getting his words &#8220;<em>out of context<\/em>,&#8221; but when I explicitly asked him to help me put them <em><strong>in<\/strong> <\/em>context, he stopped responding.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">UPDATE<\/span> 18 December 2025:<\/strong> I rewrote this piece to better organize the information, to provide an update on IAF&#8217;s refusal to take action, and to add new corporate filing information on the two BV companies.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The certification giant is taunting ANAB and the IAF to take action.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[50,322,8811,8810,83,52],"class_list":["post-33239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-anab","tag-bureau-veritas","tag-bureau-veritas-certification-north-america","tag-bvna","tag-iaf","tag-iso-17021","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33239"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33247,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33239\/revisions\/33247"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}