Although anyone can assess systems’ compliance to a standard or a code, the authorities and other stakeholders may not accept the certificate of conformity issued by a company that is not accredited by JAS-ANZ. This may impact on your accreditation status with the authority or prevent you from bidding and winning work.

JAS-ANZ accreditation ensures that the companies undertaking certification audits meet and follow a set of rules and assessment criteria; Companies accredited by JAS-ANZ are referred to as Conformity Assessment Bodies or CABs.

Once accredited, CAB’s performance is monitored for compliance and where appropriate, the accreditation may be removed preventing a CAB from undertaking any further audits recognised by the stakeholders. In other words, companies undertaking audits are themselves being audited by an independent body. CABs are required to re-apply for accreditation every four years.

Companies accredited by JAS-ANZ will have a scope of works detailing what standards and codes (Schemes) they are able to audit to. It is important that you check with the CAB that they are accredited to issue certificates to standards that you are seeking certification to. For example, a CAB that is accredited to audit to a Quality standard ISO 9001 only, cannot issue a valid certificate of conformity to any other standard. Certificate of conformity issued by a JAS-ANZ accredited CAB will have a JAS-ANZ logo on the certificate.

To see a list of CABs known to be accredited by JAS-ANZ to undertake audits to the CCF Management Code Click Here

Source: CCFVic