1. EGSCERT Impartiality

1) Being impartial, and being perceived to be impartial, is necessary for a EGSCERT to deliver certification that provides confidence.
2) It is recognized that the source of revenue for a EGSCERT is its client paying for certification, and that this is a potential threat to impartiality.
3) To obtain and maintain confidence, it is essential that a EGSCERT‘s decisions be based on objective evidence of conformity (or nonconformity) obtained by the EGSCERT, and that its decisions are not influenced by other interests or by other parties.

2  EGSCERT Management of impartiality

1) The EGSCERT shall have top management commitment to impartiality in management system certification activities. The EGSCERT shall have a publicly accessible statement that it understands the importance of impartiality in carrying out its management system certification activities, manages conflict of interest and ensures the objectivity of its management system certification activities.

2) The EGSCERT shall identify, analyse and document the possibilities for conflict of interests arising from provision of certification including any conflicts arising from its relationships. Having relationships does not necessarily present a EGSCERT with a conflict of interest. However, if any relationship creates a threat to impartiality, the certification body shall document and be able to demonstrate how it eliminates or minimizes such threats. The demonstration shall cover all potential sources of conflict of interests that are identified, whether they arise from within the EGSCERT or from the activities of other persons, bodies or organizations.

(A relationship that threatens the impartiality of the certification body can be based on ownership, governance, management, personnel, shared resources, finances, contracts, marketing and payment of a sales commission or other inducement for the referral of new clients, etc.)

3) When a relationship poses an unacceptable threat to impartiality, then certification shall not be provided.

4) A EGSCERT shall not certify another certification body for its management system certification activities.

5) The EGSCERT and any part of the same legal entity shall not offer or provide management system consultancy.

6) The EGSCERT and any part of the same legal entity shall not offer or provide internal audits to its certified clients. The EGSCERT shall not certify a management system on which it provided internal audits within two years following the end of the internal audits.

7) The EGSCERT shall not certify a management system on which a client has received management system consultancy or internal audits, where the relationship between the consultancy organization and the certification body poses an unacceptable threat to the impartiality of the certification body.
(Allowing a minimum period of two years to elapse following the end of the management system consultancy is one way of reducing the threat to impartiality to an acceptable level.)

8) The EGSCERT shall not outsource audits to a management system consultancy organization, as this poses an unacceptable threat to the impartiality of the EGSCERT . This does not apply to individuals contracted as auditors.

9) The EGSCERT’s activities shall not be marketed or offered as linked with the activities of an organization that provides management system consultancy. The EGSCERT shall take action to correct inappropriate claims by any consultancy organization stating or implying that certification would be simpler, easier, faster or less expensive if the certification body were used. A EGSCERT shall not state or imply that certification would be simpler, easier, faster or less expensive if a specified consultancy organization were used.

10) To ensure that there is no conflict of interests, personnel who have provided management system consultancy, including those acting in a managerial capacity, shall not be used by the certification body to take part in an audit or other certification activities if they have been involved in management system consultancy towards the client in question within two years following the end of the consultancy.

11) The EGSCERT shall take action to respond to any threats to its impartiality arising from the actions of other persons, bodies or organizations.

12) All EGSCERT  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.

13) EGSCERT shall require personnel, internal and external, to reveal any situation known to them that may present them or the EGSCERT with a conflict of interests. EGSCERT shall 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 interests.