• Impartiality, Provision on granting of Certificate and Use of Mark

• WQA Phils Inc.’s Commitment, Policies, and Management of Impartiality

• WQA Phils Inc. is committed that all our conformity assessment activities shall be undertaken impartially. Top management is responsible for the impartiality of our conformity assessment activities and shall not allow commercial, financial, or other pressures to compromise impartiality. Being impartial, and being perceived to be impartial, is necessary for us to deliver certification that provides confidence. We are aware that the client’s payment could be a potential threat to impartiality, and therefore to obtain and maintain confidence, our decisions would be based on the objective evidence of conformity (or nonconformity) we obtained from our client and our decisions shall not be influenced by other interests or by other parties.
  ​
  WQA Phils Inc. has a policy on impartiality because we understand the importance of it in carrying out our management system certification activities, managing conflict of interest, and ensuring the objectivity of our management system certification activities.
  ​
  WQA Phils Inc. has a process to identify, analyze, evaluate, treat, monitor, and document the risks related to conflict of interests arising from the provision of our certification including any conflicts arising from our relationships on an ongoing basis. Where there are any threats to impartiality, WQA Phils Inc. shall document and demonstrate how it eliminates or minimizes such threats and document any residual risk. The demonstration shall cover all potential threats that are identified, whether they arise from within the company or from the activities of other persons, bodies, or organizations. When a relationship poses an unacceptable threat to impartiality then certification shall not be provided.
  ​
  Top management shall review any residual risk to determine if it is within the level of acceptable risk.
  ​
  Our risk assessment process shall include identification of and consultation with appropriate interested parties to advise on matters affecting impartiality including openness and public perception. The consultation with appropriate interested parties shall be balanced with no single interest predominating.
  ​
  WQA Phils Inc. shall not certify another CB for its quality management system.
  ​
  WQA Phils Inc. and any part of the same legal entity and any entity under our organizational control shall not offer or provide management system consultancy.
  ​
  WQA Phils Inc. and any part of the same legal entity and any entity under our organizational control shall not offer or provide an internal audit to our certified clients. Recognized mitigation of this threat is that the WQA shall not certify a management system on which it provided internal audit for a minimum of two years following the completion of the internal audit
  ​
  Where a client has received management systems consultancy from a body that has a relationship with WQA Phils Inc., this is a significant threat to impartiality. Recognized mitigation of this threat is that WQA Phils Inc. shall not certify the management system of that company for a minimum of two years following the end of the consultancy.
  ​
  WQA Phils Inc. shall not outsource audits to a management system consultancy organization, as this poses an unacceptable threat to impartiality.
  ​
  The WQA Phils Inc.’s activities shall not be marketed or offered as linked with the activities of an organization that provides management system consultancy. We shall take action to correct inappropriate links or statements by any consultancy organization stating or implying that our certification would be simpler, easier, faster, or less expensive if we will be used. WQA shall not state or imply that certification would be simpler, easier, faster, or less expensive if a specified consultancy organization were used.
  ​
  In order to ensure that there is no conflict of interests, any person who has provided management system consultancy, including those acting in a managerial capacity, shall not be used by WQA Phils Inc. to take part in an audit or other certification activities if they have been involved in management system consultancy towards the client. Recognized mitigation of this threat is that that person shall not be used for a minimum of two years following the end of the consultancy.
  ​
  WQA Phils Inc. shall take action to respond to any threats to our impartiality arising from the actions of other persons, bodies, or organizations.
  ​
  All WQA Phils Inc. personnel, either internal or external or committees, who could influence the certification activities, shall act impartially and shall not allow commercial, financial, or other pressures to compromise impartiality.
  ​
  We are requiring all our personnel, internal and external, to reveal any situation known to them that can present them or the WQA with a conflict of interest. WQA Phils Inc. shall record and use this information as input to identifying threats to impartiality raised by the activities of such personnel or by the organizations that employ them, and shall not use such personnel, internal or external unless they can demonstrate that there is no conflict of interest.
  Our Services
  ISO 9001
  ISO 14001
  ISO 22000
  ISO 27001
  HACCP
  GMP 

Process for granting, refusing, maintaining, renewing, suspending, restoring, or withdrawing certification, or on expanding or reducing the scope of certification:
​
Withdrawal
​
Any organization that wishes to withdraw any of its certification schemes are required to write to WQA Phils Inc. informing its intention and reason for the withdrawal. WQA Phils Inc. shall within a reasonable time frame ensure that all ads containing the certificate shall be discontinued.
​
Suspension
​
WQA Phils Inc. shall suspend the certification of any organization under the following circumstances:
The certified organization’s management system:

has persistently or seriously failed to meet the certification requirements, including the requirement for the effectiveness of the client’s management system;

does not allow Surveillance of Recertification audits to be conducted at required frequencies;

has voluntarily requested suspension of its certification;

fails to take corrective actions for non-conformity/ties raised within the specified time frame;

has incorrectly made references to its certification status or misleading certificate, marks, or audit reports;

​

infringed the requirements of the certification contract.

The organization whose certification is suspended is required to take and provide the necessary corrective action before the end of the suspension period. Failure to resolve the issues satisfactorily will result in the withdrawal of the certification. The organization may appeal if it is not satisfied with the decision to suspend or withdraw its certificate.

​
Expanding and reducing the scope of the certification
​
Reducing the Scope of the Certification
​
Failure to resolve the issues that have resulted in suspension or withdrawal in a specific time agreed by both parties and within the allowed time frame may result in reducing the scope of the certification.
​
WQA Phils Inc. shall reduce the scope of the certification to exclude the part not meeting the requirements or the certified client persistently or seriously failing to meet the requirement for those parts of the certification. Any reduction shall be in line or in conformance with the requirement/s of the standard used for the certification.

• Under suspension, the client’s management system certificate/certification is invalid.
  ​
  Expanding the Scope of the Certification
  ​
  WQA Phils Inc. may consider the request for expansion of the scope of management certification granted after the review of the application and determine any audit activities necessary to decide whether or not the request for expansion may be granted or not. Any expansion shall be in line or in conformance with the requirement/s of the standard being requested for expansion.
  ​
  Refusing
  ​
  WQA Phils Inc. shall either accept or decline the application for certification after review of the documents submitted and after analyzing the content of the application. If WQA Phils Inc. declines an application for certification after the review of the application, it shall be documented, made clear to the client, and shall explain the reason for declining the application.
  ​
  ​
  POLICY ON USE OF LOGO/MARK
  ​
  How to Display the WQA Logo/Mark
  ​
  The WQA Phils Inc. logo is the symbol for organizations whose Management Systems have been assessed by WQA Phils Inc. as fulfilling the requirements.
  It is a valuable marketing tool to promote your overall organization and service capability, and we encourage you to use it fully.​​

​

As a WQA Phils Inc. registered firm the client can :
 
Use the logo as designed by WQA Phils Inc.
Use the logo on the following:
– Correspondence & Stationery (envelope, letterhead, etc.)
– Name card
– Advertising and promotional material (brochure, agenda, calendar, etc.)
– Website
Use the logo on electronic media (e.g. the Internet) as long as safeguards are in place to prevent downloading.

It is permissible to use words describing the registered firm status as long as it is clear that the management system has been accepted, not the product.

Use of any statement on product packaging or in accompanying information that the organization has a certified management system.

 

Product packaging is considered as that which can be removed without the product disintegrating or being damaged.
​
​As a WQA Phils Inc. registered firm client cannot :
​
Display the logo or mark on a product or its packaging.  In many cases, it is permissible for service companies to use the symbol on a medium that is seen by their customers but is not the product in itself, e.g. Credit Cards, or Cheque Books.

Use the logo by certified clients for laboratory tests, calibration, or inspection reports or certificates.

Violation of the above policy could lead to revocation or suspension of the issued certificate.