01 · the-bid — Prequalification · A certificate arrives with the bid
on screen: compare
A subcontractor sends you a certificate with their bid. It is a claim until you check it against the register of the body that issued it. That register is public, and so is the certificate number you search it with. Read the face of the certificate first.
02 · the-face — On the certificate · Five things printed on the face of it
on screen: list
Start with the certificate in front of you. Read the name of the body that issued it. Read the certificate number, because that is what a register is searched by. Read the standard, and the edition printed with it. Read the scope, which is the work and the sites it covers. Then read the two dates it runs between.
03 · the-route — The route · Four checks, in an order
on screen: track
Four checks follow, and they run in an order. The first belongs to the issuing body's own register, searched by the number you just read. The second belongs to the accreditation body named on the certificate. The third is the scope, read against the work you are buying. The fourth is the status, as it stands today.
04 · two-registers — Two registers · The issuer's register, and the accreditor's
on screen: panels
Two registers answer two different questions. The first belongs to the body that issued the certificate. Ours is searchable by certificate number or by organization, and it shows the scope, the sites and the status as it stands today. The second belongs to the accreditation body, and every I A F member publishes one. It lists the bodies it has accredited, and which standards each of them covers.
05 · accredited-or-not — Accreditation · What accreditation adds to a certificate
on screen: compare
Accreditation is a second layer. An accreditation body assesses the certifier itself against the international standard for certification bodies, and lists it in a public directory. A certificate without that behind it rests on the certifier's own view of its own work. U A E government tenders commonly ask for E I A C accreditation by name.
06 · status — Status · Five statuses a register can show
on screen: list
A printed date tells you when a certificate was meant to run to. The register tells you where it stands today. Ours shows five statuses. Valid means current. Renewing means recertification is under way. Suspended means the certificate is not in force at the moment, and withdrawn means it has been taken away for good. Expired means it reached its end date.
07 · the-cycle — Three years · The certificate has to survive its own cycle
on screen: cycle-track
A certificate runs for three years, with a surveillance audit in each of the two years between, and recertification at the end. A supplier who misses one of those audits can hold a document whose printed dates still look current. The status on the register is where that shows. Search it again at every renewal, and before every award.
08 · scope-match — Scope · Whether it covers what you are buying
on screen: panels
A genuine certificate can still be the wrong certificate. Read the scope against the work you are awarding, word for word. Check that the site where the work will happen is one the audit covered. Then check the legal entity on the certificate is the company that will sign. A certificate covers the entity and the sites listed on it.
09 · what-goes-wrong — What goes wrong · Three things accepted as a check
on screen: strike
Three things get accepted as a check. A PDF emailed by the supplier, which is a document like any other. A certification logo on a website, which carries no dates and no scope. A certificate number nobody searched for. One search on the issuing body's register settles all three.
10 · when-it-fails — If it does not match · Four moves when the check fails
on screen: cards
When something does not match, four moves are open to you, and all of them are ordinary. Ask the supplier for the certificate number, because the register is searched by it. Ask the body that issued the certificate, which can confirm what it issued and to whom. Check the accreditation body's directory for the certifier itself. And report a certificate you believe is being misused.
11 · our-register — Our register
on screen: statement
You can run all of this on us. We publish every certificate we issue, including the suspended ones and the withdrawn ones. Our register is searchable by certificate number or by organization. It shows the standard and its edition, the scope, the sites and the dates. If a document claims to have come from us, that is where it is confirmed.
12 · who-accredits-us — Who accredits us · The second check, run on us
on screen: cards
Run the second check on us as well. E I A C, the national accreditation body of the U A E, has accredited us since two thousand and seventeen. A N A B, in the United States, since two thousand and eighteen. Both cover the same three standards: I S O nine thousand and one, I S O fourteen thousand and one, and I S O forty five thousand and one, additionally we have I S O twenty two thousand three and one accrediation from EIAC, as well.
13 · close
on screen: statement
A certificate is a claim about a system somebody audited. Two public registers confirm it: the one kept by the body that issued it, and the one kept by that body's accreditor. Search both before the contract is signed.