Certification audits are there for a reason. Some will argue that auditors are just there to justify their existence, but that is not always the case. They are, rather, there to uncover possible infractions that might be going on with one or more parts of your operations – and such discrepancies could be found in your ISO audits too.

Have you checked your ISO certificate lately, do they have a JAS-ANZ logo and a registered number?

JAS-ANZ accreditation sends a clear message. It says your certification or inspection body can be counted on to perform its duties—in an authoritative and impartial way. It flags that you have been approved by an independent third-party as a professional body that acts with integrity when certifying or inspecting for conformity assessment. So, is your company on the JAS-ANZ register? Keeping in mind this is for Australia and New Zealand readers, all other countries should refer to the IAF for a list of Accreditation Members for each country.

According to a new body of research undergone and published at the University of Laval in Quebec, most of these unregistered certification efforts are coming from companies in China however are also being found in Australia as well. With that, they aim to fool any constituted authority which should have otherwise kept them in check, as well as the companies they are supplying services to.

Beyond the moral discomfort this causes for directors when such companies are found out, it also poses a serious question to the quality and safety of services which would be provided by a company that is not even certified in the first place.

How does it happen?

Many of the companies running around with a unregistered ISO certification go about it in a variety of ways. From the research carried out, some of the most effective ways of getting this done are:

Obtaining a certificate from a certifier without the right accreditation. This works in most foreign markets due to limited knowledge of what bodies have the proper accreditation and authority to issue such certificates.
Generating a certificate with the aid of photo editing software like Photoshop.
Paying their way to a certificate by bribing auditors. When this is the case, the company doesn't even need to implement the management system.
Obtaining the certificate fraudulently, for example: the company files for a certificate application with the wrong information about how things are done within the system. This will, of course, earn them the certificate, but not the right practices.

Is your certification legitimate?

To ensure clients do not just trust vendors touting an ISO certificate on benefit of the doubt, there has to be an increased transparency around the entire process.

To put that in context, these accredited certified bodies should make their database available for all on their website. That will make it easy to crosscheck the certificate numbers against whatever is present in the database, making it possible to verify or refute the claim of such vendors.

The interesting thing is that the above model is what was supposed to be in place, but the system is not big followed through as much as it should be. JAS-ANZ has such a register which can be openly accessed by the public. http://www.jas-anz.org/our-directory/certified-organisations

Likewise, companies could stop trusting these certificates coming from the likes of China and Pakistan. Although cases of fakes have been spotted in other regions too, it is not as serious as what we are seeing in these two areas.

Finally, businesses should complete their due diligence before they award projects to any other company with an ISO certificate. At the end of the day, these firms will be the one to bear the brunt of it all, should it be discovered that their vendors are failing to comply with standards and proper specifications.

Check your certificates, does it have either of these logo’s on them?

How can we help?

Before applying for certification, get in touch with us to ensure your using an accredited body. We can point you in the direction of reputable certification companies such as companies like:

Oversight are also offering free assessments of your current certifier, ensuring they’re legitimate. Simply send us a copy of your certificate and we do the digging for you, so you don’t get caught on the wrong side of the law. There are a lot of poor services out there already, and we wouldn’t like for any company to drag your name through the mud.

Has your company ever found out the hard way, that they were operating under an unregistered ISO certificate/certifier? We want to know your stories, post it in the comments section or send us a message - we would love to hear more.

Additional resources and references:

https://advisera.com/9001academy/blog/2018/05/23/how-to-know-whether-iso-9001-certificate-is-valid/
https://www.bestpracticecertification.com.au/single-post/Rates-of-Fake-ISO-Certificates-Booming-Worldwide-led-by-China-report-says
https://www.chinacheckup.com/blogs/articles/iso-china