STATEMENT BY THE RSPO ON SUSPENSION OF SGS Malaysia’s APPROVAL STATUS

 Oct. 30th, 2013
 
The RSPO has appointed Accreditation Services International (ASI) to manage and implement the Accreditation Programme of its Certification Scheme. The appointment of ASI is aimed at further advancing the integrity of RSPO’s certification process. All RSPO approved Certification Bodies (CB) that operate under the RSPO certification scheme for both P&C and supply chain certification must follow the procedures and timeline for getting full accreditation before 31 Dec 2013.

Under the programme, ASI has conducted an initial accreditation office assessment of SGS Malaysia Sdn Bhd between 26 – 28 August 2013. ASI has produced an assessment report summarizing the results and recommending the suspension of SGS Malaysia’s approval status.
 
Effective from this announcement date, RSPO suspends SGS Malaysia’s approval both for P&C and Supply Chain Certification. During the suspension period, SGS is required to comply with the following: 
 
– It is not permitted to conduct new certification assessments, including re-certification, for RSPO P&C and Supply Chain
– It is not permitted to issue new certificate for the RSPO P&C or Supply Chain
– It is allowed to continue the surveillance audit of existing certificates and report to RSPO of its certification decision
 
For those certification assessments that have been conducted but for which a certification decision is yet to be finalised, SGS is required to submit a list to the RSPO including the names of the client, details of the certification unit and date of the assessment. SGS is allowed to continue to produce a certification report on those units that are already assessed and to put it through the RSPO peer review processes, and eventually to issue certificate. This said, no new certification audit is permitted. 
 
SGS is urged to continue to undergo the accreditation process by making efforts to adequately address all non-compliances observed within the stipulated time frame. The adequacy of the corrective actions taken will be verified by ASI, who will then advise RSPO with recommended sanctions or otherwise.  
 
It is important to note that this suspension has no impact on the existing certificate issued by SGS. The P&C and Supply Chain certificates issued remains valid and the certificate holders can continue to trade RSPO certified products under the system as usual unless advised otherwise in the future.
 
 For more information, please contact:
 
Salahudin Yaacob
Technical Director
[email protected]