National Accreditation System of the Republic of Belarus

«Accreditation is the official recognition by accreditation body of competence of a legal entity of the Republic of Belarus or a foreign legal entity in the performance of conformity assessment activities in a particular field of accreditation»

The Law of the Republic of Belarus N 437-3 of October 24, 2016

LEGISLATION

The National Accreditation System operates in accordance with the Law of the Republic of Belarus N 437-З of October 24, 2016 «On assessment for compliance with technical requirements and on accreditation of conformity assessment bodies (the Law)».

The Law sets purposes and principleas of accreditation, establishes the structure of the National Accreditation System, prescribes functions of the accreditation body, provides for rights and obligations of the accredited CABs and specifies rules for using accredutation symbols.

Purposes of accreditation are as follows:

• ensuring the implementation of the unified technical policy in the field of conformity assessment;
• providing confidence to applicants for certification, applicants for testing, and consumers of goods, works and services to the activities of the accredited CABs;
• creating of conditions for mutual recognition of the accredited conformity assessment results in the international and interstate (regional) level.

Principles of accreditation are as follows:

• harmonization of legal regulation in the field of accreditation with international requirements;
• voluntariness;
• accessibility of information on the accreditation procedures and results;
• the objectivity, impartiality and competence of accreditation body, its independence;
• assurance of equal conditions for applicants for accreditation;
• assurance confidentiality of information obtained during accreditation;
• inadmissibility of restriction of competition by accredited CABs;
• inadmissibility of combining accreditation activity with conformity assessment activities and (or) involving of control (supervision), except for surveillance;
• payment of accreditation procedures.

The Law on accreditation prescribes to perform accreditation in accordance with legal act “Accreditation Rules” was adopted and registered in the National Register of Legal Acts of the Republic of Belarus (N 8/24689 of 12 January 2012), as amended by the Resolution of the State Committee for Standardization of the Republic of Belarus of June 19, 2017 No. 49 and Resolution of the State Committee for Standardization of the Republic of Belarus of 26 June 2019 No 39 (National Register of Legal acts of the Republic of Belarus - N 8/34538 of 4 September 2019) .

BSCA Quality Policy is approved by BSCA Director and is amended as necessary based on the results of annual management review.

ACCREDITATION PROCESS

The Legal act “Accreditation Rules” provides for detailed information about assessment and accreditation processes, including arrangements for granting, maintaining, extending, reducing, suspending and withdrawing accreditation (see chapters 3-8 of the Accreditation Rules).

Clause 6 of Chapter 1 of the Legal act “Accreditation Rules” requirements for applicants for accreditation and (CABs) are established in the technical legal acts of the National accreditation system of the Republic of Belarus including international standards in the field of conformity assessment and EA, ILAC and IAF documents.

ACCREDITATION CRITERIA

Requirements for accreditation, including technical requirements specific to each field of accreditation are provided in ACCREDITATION CRITERIA.

FEES

Fees for accreditation are calculated on the basis on man-days of BSCA staff members and those of external assessors/experts necessary to perform the assessment. For the convenience of accredited CABs - there is an online fee calculator for applicant laboratories and certification bodies.

Fees for accreditation is the source of BSCA financial support as BSCA is the self-sustaining organization. Records on BSCA finance are regularly audited by independent auditory company. BSCA payment balance is published on BSCA website .

RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS OF CABS

Rights and obligations of CABs are described in article 58 of the the Law on accreditation N 437-3 of October 24, 2016 and are further detaied in chapter 2 of the Legal act “Accreditation Rules”.

REGISTER OF THE ACCREDITED CABs

Current status of the accreditations that BSCA has granted to CABs can be checked at the Registrer of the accredited testing laboratories, calibration laboratories, medical laboratories. product certification bodies, management systems certification bodies, certification bodies for persons, inspection bodies, proficiency testing providers.

Most information in the Registrer is provided in Russian. It includes:

1. name and address of each accredited CAB;
2. dates of granting accreditation (mentioned as " Date of registration of certificate of accreditation") and expiry dates (mentioned as "Validity of certificate of accreditation");
3. scopes of accreditation, condensed and in full. Full scopes can be downloaded as doc./docx files (in Russian).

PROCEDURES FOR COMPLAINTS AND APPEALS

As required by ISO/IEC 17011 BSCA has developed documented procedures for lodging and handling complaints (documented procedure DP SM 7.12) and appeals (documented procedure DP SM 7.13).