The aim of certification is to give confidence to all parties that a Certified Management System is capable of fulfilling requirements. The value of Certification is the degree of confidence and trust in the certified client and The Certification Body.
We commit to the following principles that inspire such confidence and trust:
Impartiality; Competence; Responsibility; Openness; Confidentiality; Responsiveness to Complaints; Risk-based approach.
We ensure that the internal and external personnel are aware of the need for impartiality and act accordingly. We shall have procedures to ensure threats arising from self-interest, self- review, familiarity, intimidation and other threats are under control;
We manage competence of our personnel to ensure that intent, process and delivery of the certification process are within the principles that inspire confidence in certification;
We understand our responsibility for consistently ensuring that the certification decisions are fully based on objective evidences that are obtained knowing and considering the risk associated with sampling;
We shall remain transparent to the interested parties, limited to non-confidential information and information not covered by a non-disclosure agreement and:
- By giving access to information about the audit and certification process,
- By providing information about the certification status of an organization,
- By providing information about any non-restricted information,
- By allowing governance authorities access to information as mandated by law, and
- By allowing disclosure with permission from the certified client.
We shall treat any confidential gained during the process of audit and certification, and shall not disclose such information unless permission is granted by the certified client or mandated by the local laws and regulations;
We shall make available public and/or other interested parties access to our appeals and complaints mechanism that shall be addressed with commitment within reasonable time;
We shall follow a risk-based management approach, by managing risks associated with providing competent, consistent and impartial certification.
Adequate Management System shall be Established, Documented, Implemented, Maintained, Operated, Monitored and Continually improved to ensure that principles that inspire confidence in Our certification is Fully Met.
We understand that the aim of certification is to give confidence to all parties that a certified management system is capable of fulfilling requirements. The value of certification is the degree of confidence and trust on the certified client and the certification body.
We are committed to impartiality by:
- Ensuring Independence In the audit process within the certification scheme;
- Ensuring managing the conflict of interest of personnel and our interests during the conduct of the audit and certification process;
- Ensuring freedom from bias and prejudices originating from the conflicts of interest;
- Ensuring the effective use of established procedures to meet the requirements of the management system standard;
- Ensuring professional approach to deliver the audit and certification processes;
- Implementing monitoring and governance approach Internally;
- Empowering the Impartiality Committee to review the highest standards of our certification Integrity;
- Implementing internally and empowering the Impartiality committee to address complaints and appeals received by interested parties.
Adequate Management System shall be Established, Documented, Implemented, Maintained, Operated, Monitored and Continually improved to demonstrate Our Commitment to The Impartiality of The Certification Process.
We understand that the aim of certification is to give confidence to all parties that a certified management system is capable of fulfilling requirements. The value of certification is the degree of confidence and trust on the certified client and the certification body. The degree of confidence may require access to confidential information and the need for privileged access.
Privileged access may be related to confidential information that is needed for the certification body to assess conformity to requirements for certification or meet audit objectives.
In the course of your audit and interaction process, you may create, receive, know of or gain access to information that is confidential and/or proprietary. It is essential that a certification body does not disclose any confidential information.
We are committed to confidentiality by:
- Communicating confidential information only to those persons who need to know it for a legitimate audit and /or certification purpose;
- Ensuring confidential information relating to third parties is often governed by legal requirements or a confidentiality or non-disclosure agreement when an applicable confidentiality or non-disclosure agreement is requested by the parties concerned within the certification and/or audit process;
- Ensuring confidential information shall not be communicated to third parties if it would give rise to a conflict between the interests of the recipient and the clients, or if it is reasonably foreseeable that the recipient would misuse the information;
- Securing and Protecting documents containing confidential information where they may be seen by persons who do not have a need to know the content of the documents;
- Avoiding unnecessary copying and/or distribution of documents containing confidential information;
- Cooperating fully with conflicts generated through compromise of confidentiality within the audit and/or certification process;
- Ensuring commitment and compliance of The Impartiality Committee and personnel during the conduct of the audit and certification process;
Adequate Management System shall be Established, Documented, Implemented, Maintained, Operated, Monitored and Continually improved to demonstrate Our Commitment to the confidentiality policy in the audit and /or certification process.
At SMG, we are passionate about what we do, and we understand what’s at stake for your business. We work hard to apply our expertise to make your management systems more efficient and effective. This is why we are one of the most trusted management system assessment companies providing assurance. Whilst every effort is taken to meet the high standards expected of us sometimes things can still go wrong. When this occurs we need to be informed so that every effort can be made to put things right and prevent further shortcomings in the future.
- We shall put our best efforts to address and resolve the appeals and complaints from our clients and interested parties.
- We shall maintain an adequate transparency without compromising confidentiality.
- We shall maintain a customer focused approach to the appeals and complaint arising from the activities of service delivery and always ensure to remain objective, impartial and accountable to the process of resolution of appeals and complaints.
- We shall ensure to remain in compliance to the local laws and regulations with respect to this process.
- We shall be available for access at the highest level for making the appeals and complaints, and based on the process of analysis and review we will continue to improve the appeals and complaints handling process, and no charges shall be levied to the clients who has made the appeal/ complaint.
Should you have any complaint, you may reach out to us via the chat box conveniently provided on our website or alternatively, you can direct your inquiries to our dedicated email address customerservice@smg-aw.com.
Action/s shall be taken on clients’ certification status when they do not continue to meet the certification requirements. The situations can be the following, but not limited to:
- The management system of the client is not able to, persistently and seriously, meet the requirement of the standard and that of certification;
- Results of a special audit based on reports of serious deficiencies including legal non-compliance, indicate serious lack of conformance (refusal to present themselves for such a special audit shall be construed to indicated serious lack of conformance);
- The certified clients do not allow or present themselves for surveillance activities as part of the agreed audit programme;
- The certified clients do not allow or present themselves for recertification activities as part of the agreed audit programme;
- The certified client has voluntarily requested for a suspension or withdrawal of certification.
- The certified client has asked to change the scope of certification
This procedure shall be applied to any client which undergo such conditions where suspension of certification is a strong possibility.
Reduction/expansion of scope, when requested by the client, shall be subjected to regular off-site or on-site review as determined after a review of the request.
Reduction of scope may be determined as a result of the complaint/feedback mechanism involving an interested party.
Under suspension, the client’s certificate is temporarily invalid. This shall be informed to the client by suitable means.
Suspension, in most cases, would not exceed 6 months, if the suspension exceeds more than 6 months, the scheme manager shall review to decide if an on-site audit required to revoke the suspension.
There would be no change in the overall validity end date, nor a proportional extension, of the certificate period even when part of the period has been lost in suspension.
The scope of certification shall be reduced to exclude the parts not meeting the certification requirements, when a certified client has persistently or seriously failed to meet the certification requirements for those parts of the scope of certification. Such reduction shall meet the requirements specific to the scheme.
Certificate Restoration, in cases where the suspension is lifted following successful corrective actions and verification, the client’s certificate shall be restored to its valid status. The restoration process includes a reassessment audit to ensure that the identified issues have been effectively addressed. SMG is committed to assisting clients in restoring their certifications while upholding impartiality, fairness, and professional integrity.
Detailed requirements for Certificate suspension, withdrawal or scope reduction-Status and actions for FSSC
When a critical nonconformity is issued and/or there is evidence that their client is either unable or unwilling to establish and maintain conformity with Scheme requirements SMG will suspend the certificate.
SMG shall withdraw a certificate when: the status of suspension cannot be lifted within six (6) months; the organization ceases its FSSC 22000 certification activities; any other situation where the integrity of the certificate or audit process is severely compromised.
When SMG has evidence that their client holds a certificate whose scope exceeds their capability or capacity to meet scheme requirements.
SMG shall reduce the certification scope accordingly, SMG shall not exclude activities, processes, products or services from the scope of certification when those activities, processes, products or services can have an influence on the food safety of the end products as defined in the scope of certification.