STATEMENT BY THE RSPO ON SUSPENSION OF SIRIM QAS INTERNATIONAL’S APPROVAL STATUS

Sept. 11th, 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 SIRIM QAS INTERNATIONAL Sdn Bhd between the 10th and 12th of July 2013. ASI has produced an assessment report summarizing the results and recommending the suspension of SIRIM’s approval status.
 
Effective from this announcement date, RSPO suspends SIRIM’s approval both for P&C and Supply Chain Certification. During the suspension period, SIRIM 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

For those certification assessments that have been conducted but for which a certification decision is yet to be finalised, SIRIM 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. SIRIM 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. 
 
SIRIM 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 SIRIM. The P&C and Supply Chain certificates issued remain 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]

 
SUSPENSION OF SIRIM QAS INTERNATIONAL’S APPROVAL STATUS has been lifted on 8 May 2014.
SIRIM can now conduct certification/recertification audit but can issue certificate only when SIRIM is fully accredited as CAB.
For further information, please log on to:
 
ASI Accreditation Progress:
https://rspo.org/en/accreditation_progress
 
RSPO Approved Certification Bodies for Principles & Criteria Certification:
https://rspo.org/en/principles_and_criteria
 
RSPO Approved Certification Bodies for Supply Chain Certification:
https://rspo.org/en/sccs

Date: 23/05/2014.