IMPARTIALITY POLICY & PUBLIC STATEMENT

ISOQAR Inc is the legal entity responsible for certification activities; reference to ISOQAR in this Policy and Public Statement refers to these legal entities.

ISOQAR its Directors, Managers and Staff fully understands the importance of impartiality in undertaking its Certification Activities. ISOQAR 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.

• ISOQAR Certificates are only issued following a review by an independent authorised and competent member of the management team to ensure that no interest shall predominate
• ISOQAR does not offer (and has never offered) management system consultancy or any other form of consultancy to companies or individuals.
• ISOQAR does not offer (and has never offered) an internal audit service to companies or individuals.
• ISOQAR does not own or have any interest (financial or otherwise) in any other company that offers certification, management system consultancy or internal audit services.
• ISOQAR 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 ISOQAR. Any proposed relationship between ISOQAR and any other company will undergo a risk assessment by the Committee for Impartiality prior to that relationship being formalised. Any current relationships with companies, organisations 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 Committee for Impartiality.
• Individuals employed by or otherwise contracted to ISOQAR 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 ISOQAR to be declared. ISOQAR 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. The risk assessment will be undertaken by the Committee for Impartiality.
• ISOQAR will not allocate a member of staff or sub-contractor to a management system audit where any past relationship has existed. Exceptionally and at the discretion of the Operations Manager or Directors an individual or sub-contractor may be allocated to a management system audit where a past relationship has existed but there has been no relationship for a minimum of 2 years. The risk assessment will be reviewed by the Committee for Impartiality.
• ISOQAR does not offer any training in the USA.
• ISOQAR will ensure that it is not linked or marketed in any way which links it with the activities of a management system consultancy and will take appropriate action should any such link be identified.
• All employees will be reviewed at least annually to ensure that they remain impartial when conducting audits.
• Auditors and others involved in the 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.