ISA Inc. is the legal entity responsible for certification activities; reference to ISA in this Policy and Public Statement refers to these legal entities.
ISA is committed to ensuring the impartiality of its certification/registration services. ISA pro-actively manages any threat of conflict of interest, actual or perceived, affecting ISA’s certification/registration services.
ISA’s commitment to impartiality is monitored and administered by an independent “Impartiality Committee” dedicated to providing oversight regarding impartiality of its certification/registration services.
ISA, its Directors, Managers, Staff and Auditors fully understands the importance of impartiality in undertaking its Certification Activities. ISA will therefore ensure that in all its dealings with clients or potential clients all employees or other personnel are and will remain impartial. To ensure that impartiality is both maintained and can be demonstrated the following principals have been established.
- ISA Certificates are only issued following a review by an independent authorized and competent member of the Certification team to ensure that no interest shall predominate.
- ISA does not offer (and has never offered) management system consultancy or any other form of consultancy to companies or individuals.
- ISA does not offer (and has never offered) an internal audit service to companies or individuals.
- ISA does not own or have any interest (financial or otherwise) in any other company that offers certification, management system consultancy or internal audit services.
- ISA does not have (and will not form) any relationships with companies who offer consultancy, internal audit services or other services that can be construed as having an impact on the certification services provided by ISA. Any proposed relationship between ISA and any other company will undergo a risk assessment by the Committee for Impartiality prior to that relationship being formalized. Any current relationships with companies, organizations and individuals will be risk assessed on a regular basis to ensure that the relationship does not impact upon the impartiality of the certification process. The risk assessment will be undertaken by the Impartiality Committee.
- ISA may refer, upon Applicant/Client request, consultants and consulting companies who offer services that applicants and clients have expressed interest in. These references are based on applicant’s/client’s location, management standard application, specific service required, industry sector, etc. ISA’s references are not an endorsement of any consultant/consulting company nor constitute a relationship with said consultant/consulting company. As a matter of policy, ISA does not give preference to any consultant/consulting company and does not guarantee certification for applicants/clients who accept ISA’s suggestions. It is solely the applicant’s/client’s responsibility to conduct the due diligence required for selecting an appropriate consultant/consulting company. ISA does not seek nor accept benefit, financial or otherwise from making these suggestions.
- Individuals employed by or otherwise contracted to ISA are required to document and record their current and past relationships with all companies. Any situation past or present which may present a potential conflict of interest is required by ISA to be declared. ISA will use the information to identify any threats to impartiality and will not use that individual in any capacity unless they can demonstrate that there is no conflict of interest.
- ISA will not assign a member of staff or an auditor to a management system audit where a past relationship has existed except there has been no relationship for a minimum of 2 years. The risk assessment will be reviewed by the Committee for Impartiality member(s).
- ISA has not and does not offer any training services.
- A review will be conducted of all employees at least annually to ensure that they remain impartial when conducting audits and certification-related activities.
- Auditors and others involved in the auditing and certification process are not and will not be put under any pressure and will not be influenced in any way to come to a particular conclusion regarding the result of an audit.