In order to ensure impartiality and exclude conflicts of interest, auditors involved in certification activities do not carry out training activities within the educational institute. In the company, the exchange of information between organizational units, including separate information systems, is prohibited.
The company continuously identifies, analyzes, evaluates and documents risks related to conflicts of interest. If there is a threat to impartiality, the company will eliminate or minimize such threats and document the remaining risk. It analyzes the identified potential threats, regardless of whether they arose within the certification authority or whether they resulted from the activities of other persons, authorities or organizations. If this relationship creates an unacceptable threat to impartiality, certification must not be granted.
Top management must review any remaining risk to determine whether it is at an acceptable level of risk.
The risk assessment process must include the identification and consultation of relevant stakeholders to assess issues of impartiality, including openness and public perception. Consultation with relevant stakeholders must be balanced, without one interest prevailing.
As a certification body, the company may not certify the quality management system of another certification body. Likewise, he may not offer and provide consulting in the field of management systems and may not advertise and offer his activities in connection with the activities of an organization that provides consulting in the field of management systems.
The company may not certify the management system for which it performed internal audits at least two years after the end of these internal audits.
In the case of consultations provided by an organization that has a relationship with the company, the company may not certify the management system for at least two years after the end of the consultation.
The company may not use a consulting organization for audits of the management system, this does not apply to contracted persons as auditors.
Employees who provide management system consultations may not be used by the company in audits or other certification activities for the client for whom they participated in management system consultations for at least two years after the end of the consultations.
The company requires all employees of the company, internal or external, as well as members of commissions who could influence the certification activity, to disclose to them a known situation that may represent a conflict of interest for them or for the company or the certification body. This information is an input in detecting a threat to impartiality. If they cannot demonstrate that there is no conflict of interest, they may not use such persons internally or externally.
