First accreditation granted in the field of certification of persons

In January 2013 the Accreditation Body of Serbia (ATS) granted the first accreditation to a certification body providing certification of persons (Professional Control Group in Belgrade) as per SRPS ISO/IEC 17024:2005. Extension of the accreditation activities in this field included a series of activities that ATS carried out in the previous two years. Those covered: analysis of the needs for accreditation as part of the activities of the Technical Committee for Accreditation of Certification Bodies, drafting of the documentary procedure for the new activity to be carried out, and the training of the ATS assessors and employees in the new activities.

The accredited certification body provides certification of persons in the following fields: non-destructive tests, fusion welding, coupling installation, automated and mechanised welding, flange joint installation and soldering. Applications for accreditation of another three certification bodies are being reviewed.

The new edition ISO/IEC 17024:2012 (Serbian version of ISO/IEC 17024:2012 (SRPS ISO/IEC 17024:2012, Conformity assessment – General requirements for bodies operating certification of persons) was published on 24.09.2012) was adopted in 2012. Pursuant to the decision that was made this year at the IAF General Assembly meeting, the transition period for ISO/IEC17024: 2012 would be three years from the date of publication (1st July 2012). Hence the European co-operation for Accreditation (EA), i.e. its Certification Committee, delivered training in the application of ISO/IEC 17024:2012 that was also attended by the ATS assessors. Therefore, one of the steps forward in the transition to the new edition of the standard was made, while ATS will soon define other activities to be undertaken during the transition period.

We are very proud that our long-term efforts in establishing accreditation scheme for certification bodies providing certification of persons were finalised, whereas ATS intends to extend the scope of the EA MLA to include this activity. We have been undertaking numerous activities to achieve this. ATS would like to take this opportunity to wish a warm welcome to a new member of our family of accredited conformity assessment bodies and we hope that the number of the accredited certification bodies providing certification of persons will rise in the next period. This will only contribute to the development of this field in the Republic of Serbia.