As battle with Covid19 has significantly increased demand for Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs), a number of producers have come up in the market to produce PPE kits.
The guidelines on rational use of PPEs issued by MoH have specified specifications for PPEs which are generally ISO/ASTM/EU standards/regulations and accepts certificates from national/international organizations/labs – the latter is subject to interpretation.
As a result in the market, all kinds of certificates have been produced by suppliers to purchasers including govt procurement many of which are unauthentic.
Some examples of these certificates are attached – there are certificates for CE mark as well as ISO standards – CE certificates can only be issued by notified bodies of EC whereas authentic ISO certificates would be those which come from duly accredited certification bodies (CBs) and carrying logo of the accreditation body (AB) under the prevailing international system
The world market is full of private certification bodies issuing certificates to industry and it is important to distinguish an authentic certificate from many unauthentic, fake or fraudulent certificates going around. There are also private accreditation bodies outside the recognized international system and many of these CBs claim accreditation from such unauthentic ABs whose credentials are dubious.
The following guidance is provided to verify authenticity of certificates produced:
An authentic certificate should contain the following:
- Name and address of the organization certified
- Scope of certification describing its activities under certification – e.g. production, packing and sale of personal protective equipment like coveralls, shoe covers …….(broad list of products)
- Standard (or sometimes scheme or regulation) against which certification is granted e.g. ISO 9001 or ISO 13485 (standard) or AS 9100 or FSSC 22000 (scheme) – in general guidance standards are not amenable to certification – these have to be formal, requirement standards or specifications for products or process
- Date of issue and expiry of certificate
- Unique identification number of the certificate
- Name and address of the certification body (CB)
- Logo of the certification body
- Accreditation symbol indicating the name of the accreditation body (AB) which has accredited the certification body (in most countries, in the absence of any law requiring certification bodies to register, accreditation is the only way of recognizing a competent, authentic certification body)
- IAF Mark (optional) – indicating that the certificate is covered under the Multilateral Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MLA) of the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and hence is internationally equivalent and acceptable in the market
In order to judge the authenticity, the names of member ABs of IAF can be seen on its website www.iaf.nu – it also gives information on which accreditation bodies are signatories to IAF MLAs for specific schemes – QMS or EMS or FSMS. Once you locate the AB in a country, you can go to its website from the link given on IAF website and then on AB’s website to verify if the CB is accredited. Then from the CB, you can verify the certificate because under international norms, CBs are obliged to help verify certificates issued by them. In case the certificate is issued under a scheme like IATF 16949 for auto sector or AS 9100 for aerospace sector or FSSC 22000 for food sector, it is possible to verify the certificates through the scheme owners also. It may be noted that ISO is only a standards setting body and does not undertake any certification – hence use of ISO logo in any form on a certificate is misuse of its logo and you can assume that the certificate is not authentic.
It may also be noted that CE mark is Europe’s regulatory mark and in case of PPEs, EC has a separate regulation under which Notified Bodies are designated only in Europe. The list is available at link
There may be some branches or associates of NBs in India but any certificate must be from the NB listed in EC database.
In India, NABCB under QCI is the national accreditation bodies for certification bodies and any certificate bearing NABCB logo should be acceptable because NABCB will make sure the certificate is issued against a recognized standard following an acceptable process by a competent body.
Examples of authentic & unauthentic certificates can be read in the following document :
http://ccc-consultants.org/certificate-authentication_ppes_apr-2020/
Click here to have a look at the unauthentic certificates:
Author :
Mr Anil Jauhri
- M Tech Civil Engineering – IIT, Kanpur
- Former CEO , NABCB – National Accreditation Board for Certification bodies for 6 ½ years
- CDM Accreditation Panel Member at UNFCCC for12 years
- Member, Yoga Certification Board, Ministry of AYUSH
- Adviser, NABCB, Quality Council of India for 4 years
- Director, NABCB for 3 years
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