On certification bodies enforcing their rules
Lecturer: Rike Sandlin
Rivervista Partners LLC
info@rivervistapartners.com
769-218-9825
Highlights:
• Certification scheme owners such as Siri, e-Stewards and Rios set the requirements and methods for policing and reporting violations.
• Certifying bodies, which are audit firms, must follow these rules.
• Organizations with mistakes can rectify their errors, but flagrant violations can result in a loss of certification.
• Loss of certification can have a severe impact on an organization’s ability to win or retain business.
Rike’s assessment:
The certification scheme owners such as Siri, e-Stewards and Rios set the requirements and the methods for policing and for reporting violations and how to handle those. The certifying bodies, which are the audit firms, have to follow those rules and the good news is there’s typically a process for organizations, if they have made a mistake, if they have made an error in their processes or in their communications, there’s usually a way for them to go about rectifying that. But if there’s a flagrant violation, intentional, then typically they are relieved of their certification. They can’t be certified anymore, which could be a forever-thing, or it may be a period of time, or several years before they can apply for certification again, and since many of the certifications are demand driven, then that really impacts their business, their ability to win business or retain clients if they’re not able to retain their certification. So, enforcement is a process, which allows for corrective action and investigation, but the net result if someone loses certification, it can have a severe impact.
