Md. Nasirul Islam :
Accreditation conveniences Government or Policy Maker or Regulator to formulate rules and regulations with appropriate policies, systems and procedures facilitate its activities. An industry or a Company or an organisation might develop and adapt its own code of practice and Accreditation can ensure the demonstration of compliance of such standard for pertinent organisation.
Most of the developed countries are taking the advantages of Accreditation by making these services mandatory or giving priorities over others. Such activities make their works comfortable, responsible to their stakeholders/customers and prevent the deterioration of services. We can easily take the concessionaire of accreditation services for the sake of better regulation, environmental protection, public safety, fraud prevention, fair market and public trust as having effective and efficient accreditation body in our country with global recognition. Government/Regulator can get better being in possession of routine by using conformity assessment in its own departments to minimize risks, promote trade, delivering confidence. The services of Standards, Accreditation and Conformity Assessment are always credible and reliable because of their market based paraphernalia of having technical competence, using compliance with a standard, providing impartial and integrity of organization evaluated by peers.
This year’s, World Accreditation Day, theme emphasizes on how accreditation can play the role of global tool to support public policy in the public sector – national and local government, regulators. This year IAF/ILAC fixes on some specific sector, like: Construction, Environment, Economic Development etc. Here’re some global examples of using accreditation by Policy Makers/ Regulators/Government Agencies. In Northern Ireland, all construction works contracts procured by a Centre of Procurement Expertise (CoPE) will include a requirement that all main contractors seeking to tender shall have and maintain an Environmental Management System-EMS (ISO 14001), BS 8555 or equivalent certified by a third party. Accreditation Body ensures that the Certification Body is providing ISO 14001 maintaining all criterion and requirements. In Italy, Accredited ISO 9001 certification is used to qualify organisations able to bid for work in the construction field and 30,000 audits are performed per year by competent people at no cost to the state but government gets better services from them.
The World Bank-GFDRR report Building Regulation for Resilience: Managing Risks for Safer Cities released in April 2016 outlines the benefits of strong and effective building regulatory frameworks where a resource to assist policy makers, governments, donor entities, as well as key private sector.
In New Zealand, the Department of Building and Housing has published standards and Criteria, 19 regulations of which applicants are expected to meet 11 of them, for accrediting Building Consent Authorities in 2006. IANZ undertakes the assessments of Building Consent Authorities against these standards and criteria for registration. The Indian Directorate General of Foreign Trade has relaxed its import rules of steel and steel products, and will rely on the ILAC and IAF arrangements to maintain quality assurance because of having accredited product certification body (ISO/IEC 17065) by IAF MLA signatory, or from an ISO /IEC17020 inspection body accredited by ILAC MRA Signatory. In Palestine, The Engineering Association uses the accreditation certificate as a condition to renew the annual license for the construction and building materials laboratories
The Hong Kong Housing Authority builds an average of 20000 flats per year for the public sector. The quality of building materials and components is always of prime concern to the Housing Authority and the industry.
Housing Authority fully recognizes that product certification is an upstream quality control process and it offers higher quality assurance through regular rigorous audits by a competent third party certification body.Product certification provides a reliable means for assuring production quality throughout the whole production process from incoming raw materials, production, inspection, sample selection and testing, traceability, etc thus making available certified construction products of quality for use in building projects.
Hong Kong Housing Authority makes extensive use of ISO 50001 Energy Management system standard at its Kwai Shing West Estate soon and had successfully obtained the ISO 14001 certification for property management for all estates in July 2013 that was planned to maintain in property management since 2010.
The Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning use accredited certification bodies according to ISO/IEC 17024 to certify persons that have competence according to Expert in Energy consumption in buildings to regulation BFS 2011:9, in Quality assurance during construction of buildings to regulation BFS 2011:14, in Ventilation system in buildings to regulation BFS 2011:16, in Fire protection in buildings to regulation BFS 2011:17, on Culture values for buildings to regulation BFS 2011:16 and in Accessibility in buildings to regulation BFS 2011:18
In New Zealand, Pressure equipment and cranes must be inspected by an inspection body accredited by an MRA partner to comply with Government policy.
In Dubai, Local government requires that laboratories want to provide testing services in governmental construction projects and conducts environmental testing shall be accredited.
Department of Housing and Urbanism in Chile, requires the use of accredited laboratories to test building products such as asphalt, elements and components, concrete, wood, metals, and the mechanics of soil. In UK, Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has announced that all Competent Person Scheme (CPS) operators must be accredited. In Italy, Accredia, the national Accreditation body in support of the Ministry of the Environment, has set simpler regulations for the use of Fluorinated gases, thereby reducing costs for business and reducing CFC-gas emissions in accordance with the Kyoto Protocol. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the twelve Pacific-rim countries include Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Singapore, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Peru, Vietnam and USA is a trade agreement, released on November 5th 2015. The agreement’s goal is to promote economic growth; support the creation and retention of jobs; enhance innovation, productivity and competitiveness; raise living standards; promote transparency, good governance, and enhanced labour and environmental protections. Accreditation has an important role to implement these activities.
Accreditation, recognized by existing regional and international mutual recognition Arrangements (APLAC& ILAC MRA and PAC&IAF MLA) is referenced as a key measure to support trade through the removal of technical barriers to trade (TBT). So all Conformity Bodies in Bangladesh can easily take the services of Bangladesh Accreditation Board as it is MRA signatory to both APLAC and ILAC since 2015.
