IAAC General Assembly 2019

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IAAC meetings

IAAC held its General Assembly meetings in Mexico City, Mexico, in August 2019. Over 60 representatives from 20 countries in the region participated in the week long meetings.

Main issues that were discussed:

IAAC position on the draft IAF MD X Criteria for the evaluation of conformity assessment schemes. The General Assembly reviewed the draft IAF MD X Criteria for the evaluation of conformity assessment schemes, and upon recommendation of the IAAC Technical Committee agrees that:

a) IAAC expresses its concern about changing the scope and nature of the document from that which was originally envisaged;
b) IAAC considers the document is only appropriate for reviewing conformity assessment schemes that may be endorsed by the IAF for reference in the IAF MLA, and should not be a mandatory document that applies at the level of Accreditation Bodies;

IAAC members are encouraged to vote in IAF against the draft document in its current form.

IAAC MLA recognition by IAF and ILAC

IAAC is a Recognized Regional Cooperation for the main scopes of Testing (including Medical) and Calibration Laboratories; Inspection Bodies; Management Systems Certification Bodies (with sub scopes QMS, EMS, FSMS, ISMS, MDMS and EnMS), and Product Certification Bodies (with sub scope Global G.A.P).

IAAC submitted an application to ILAC to extend its MRA recognition for the scopes of Proficiency Testing Providers (PTP) and Reference Materials Producers (RMP). IAAC also submitted an application to IAF to extend its MLA recognition for the scopes of Persons Certification Bodies and Green House Gases (GHG) Validation/Verification.

During 2018 and 2019, an IAF and ILAC peer evaluation team has been carrying out the re-evaluation and MLA scope extension evaluations of IAAC.

The IAAC officers

The current key IAAC officers are:
Liliane Somma of OUA, Uruguay, IAAC Chair
Andrea Melo of Cgcre, Brazil, IAAC Vice-Chair
Elias Rafoul of SCC, Canada, IAAC Treasurer
Ferney Chaparro of ONAC, Colombia, as MLA Group and MLA Committee Chair
Robert Knake of A2LA, USA, as MLA Group and MLA Committee Vice-Chair, who was elected this August for a 2 year term.

New OHSMS MLA subscope

The IAAC General Assembly launched the IAAC MLA for Occupational Health Safety Management Systems (OHSMS) Certification Bodies under ISO 45001. IAAC is inviting members to apply for MLA scope extensions for this subscope.

IAAC Membership

IAAC currently has a total of 58 members, 24 of which are full members, 4 are associate members and 30 are stakeholders. The amount of members has been stable and with no recent changes. One CAB is currently in the process of submitting its application for Stakeholder membership in IAAC.

IAAC MLA Signatories

IAAC has a total of 20 MLA signatory members from 17 countries. Even though the amount of signatories has not changed, it is worthy to note that every year there has been a steady increase in MLA scope extensions approved by the IAAC MLA Group.

New IAAC MLA signatories

In August 2019, one IAAC MLA signatory extended its MLA scopes: ONAC of Colombia was accepted as an MLA signatory for Persons Certification Bodies, Proficiency Testing Providers and Medical Laboratories.

IAAC Meetings

The next IAAC General Assembly meetings will be held in Montreal, Canada, from August 14-21, 2020.