 Hello, thanks for joining me on issues and answers. I am Julie Tepiton with me is Dr. Zenta D'Obizon, head of certification at the Saint Lucia Bureau of Standards, and over the next 20 minutes, our discussion will focus on World Accreditation Day. Dr. D'Obizon, thanks for joining me on the program. Thanks for having me. Every year, the world marks June 9th as World Accreditation Day. And here in Saint Lucia, your agency, the Saint Lucia Bureau of Standards, spares activities to raise awareness of accreditation. What really is accreditation? Okay, basically, what happens is that most persons, they use the word certification and accreditation together. And I'm hoping that by the end of this interview, that persons would have a better understanding of what accreditation is. It's really a process by which formal recognition is given by an independent third party that a conformity assessment body is competent to carry out the activities that it is carrying out. And when I say conformity assessment body, I'm speaking about inspection bodies, certification bodies and certification bodies, the certified products, processes, services, and even persons. For SLBS, we do process, product, and service certification. We do not do certification of persons. Another example of a conformity assessment body is a laboratory. And you have different kinds of laboratories. You have medical laboratories, and you also have testing and calibration laboratories. So as I said, it's basically a process where those entities receive recognition that they are competent to carry out their activities. Now, as the agency spearheading the observance of World Accreditation Day, which is on June 9th, what is really your role in that process? The over the last 10 to 15 years, the Karakam Regional Organization for Standards and Quality Cross-Cube, what they have done is to establish what you call national accreditation focal points within the various Karakam countries. And most of these focal points rest within the different Bureau of Standards. And the SLBS is the National Accreditation Focal Point. And over those last years, through, of course, the use of funds from the EU, what they have done is to train those focal, those persons within the focal points. And the focal point, what it does is to provide support, of course, to the various conformity assessment bodies that want to receive accreditation. And it's a one, it's within the Bureau, it's within the certification departments. And having been trained in the requirements of some of the standards, we are more or less equipped to provide information, which is why we have in the training, which we'll speak about later, to raise awareness on what accreditation is, why the need for accreditation, the importance of accreditation. In order for an organization, for example, to become accredited, what are some of the prerequisites? What is the standard we're looking for, the Bureau of Standards? Okay. Well, to become accredited, it depends on the type of body you are. If you're a laboratory, there are two standards, international standards, the laboratories are to be guided by. A medical laboratory, there's ISO 15189. And for testing and calibration laboratories, it's another standard, 17.025. If you're an inspection body, there's another standard. If you're a certification body, there's 17.065. The Bureau of Standards, our certification body, we work, of course, in keeping with the requirements of that particular standard. So to become certified, of course, you would first of all have to know what the standard requires, which one applies to you, what it requires. You would have to implement the requirements of that particular standard. And once you've done so, of course, you can, through the national accreditation focal point at the SLBS, you can seek assistance as to which accreditation bodies you can use for that purpose. Now, why would you say accreditation being given so much prominence? Accreditation, it's very important because what it does, it more or less ensures that there's integrity, impartiality and competence in carrying out your various activities. It also facilitates trade because, as you know, with the testing and calibration laboratories, if a product is tested and has to be exported, if the testing is done by an accredited laboratory, once tested, accepted everywhere, so when that product is exported, the manufacturers do not have to undergo another cost of the product being retested overseas. It's important in that different regulators as well use accreditation. And there are various interesting examples throughout the world. I can give a few, like in Dubai, for example, lifeguards, they have to be certified in order to work on the beaches. And so that certification has to come from a certification body that is accredited to perform in certification of persons. If you look at in the UK again, when it comes to asbestos, the use of asbestos in commercial entities, the inspection bodies who actually do the inspections of those buildings, they have to be certified to do that sort of inspection activity. In test-stabbing and fast-bestos, the test has to be done by an accredited laboratory as well. So there are quite a few examples of the use of accreditation internationally. Is it possible that a person or an organization can become delisted from the accreditation list or be stripped off that sort of certification and what would give rise to that occasion? Well, definitely, because to become certified, of course, to become accredited, you have to be guided by a particular standard. Now what the accreditation bodies do is that they would go in and they would assess that body, be it a lab, be it an inspection body, be it a certification body, they would do their assessment against the requirements of that particular standard. And once certified, of course, that body would undergo what you call, every year they would have to undergo an assessment. Now if within the certification year, you have various complaints about that entity, different things, various complaints, if for example, an audit, sometimes they may do surprise audits as well. So if a surprise audit is carried out and they recognize that they're not in keeping with the requirements of the standard, of course they can be delisted. And most accreditation bodies, they would actually, if you go on their website, they would actually list those organizations that have received accreditation. Now we're looking at the topic of capacity and that often comes up. How much capacity is there in San Lucia to support organizations in accreditation? Well I must say over the last, again, 10 to 15 years, there was a lot of focus on medical labs where through the national accreditation focal points and even through cross queue, there was a lot of training, a lot of personnel from those labs received training. Sometimes it would require traveling to different countries to receive that particular training, be it on the requirements of the standard. And also we have collaborated, sometimes we make presentations on what accreditation is. So that support mechanism is there. If of course we are not experts in everything, so if there's a need for a particular area that the labs are finding problems with, like measurement and certainty is a very complicated issue which I myself, I really don't understand. But we can source personnel from the different Caribbean countries because it's a whole network of supports that does exist within the Caricam countries, of course through cross queue and funds from the European Union. Well we are due for a break now, you're watching issues and answers, the program returns after the break. Pamela, I noticed that you built your retaining wall on my property, you will have to give me my land back or compensate me for that. My contractor isn't dumb, I trust that he will not build anything on your property. Where is your proof? Let's go to court. This situation does not require you to go to court. Looks like we have to go through mediation here. Mediation is a way people resolve conflicts like this. Someone, a third party, comes to speak to both parties. This person is called the mediator. The mediator is impartial. He or she makes sure that communication between both parties is effective and efficient. So the mediator is a judge? No, the mediator is not a judge. Mediators, unlike judges, do not decide cases or impose settlements. Let me get a mediator to handle this retaining wall and that kitchen. Kitchen? Yes. Your kitchen also falls on my land. Let me call the mediator. Welcome back. You are watching Issues and Answers and my guest is Dr. Zendh Dobizor, Head of Certification at the Saint Lucia Bureau of Standards. Dr. Dobizor, the SLBS as the name implies is primarily concerned with the standards on ensuring that goods and services comply with international regulations. And of course accreditation is very much part of your mandate. How much work has gone into accreditation on the island? Well, first of all, we don't have an accreditation body in Saint Lucia. And even through the work of Croscue, of course, we're trying to look at how resources can be efficiently utilized. So there's no need to have an accreditation body within every country. So what Croscue has done is to establish two accreditation bodies in Trinidad and in Jamaica. And this is in an effort to reduce the cost of becoming accredited because to become accredited when you apply to the accreditation bodies, those persons sometimes come all the way from the US, they come from different areas from Europe. And so to reduce that cost, those two accreditation bodies have been established within the region to reduce the cost of accreditation. And so at the SLBS, the NAFPs there, National Accreditation Focal Point, to provide whatever assistance is necessary. And as I said, if we do not have the information, if a lab requests a specific information, we would actually, through our networking, source that information. We can tell you which accreditation body, for example, has received what you call Mutual Recognition because, of course, you have the accreditation body who would oversee the labs, the certification body, the inspection bodies. So we have a question now who will look at the accreditation bodies. So there's a process of peer assessment. So the different accreditation bodies throughout the world, they do what you call peer assessments of each other so that each accreditation body will carry out the same activity in the same, the same way. You have uniformity in procedures in the way things are done. And believe you, there's the various standards for everything. They are actually guided by a particular standard. And so recognizing that, of course, there's no need to set up one in Senusia because, of course, it won't be cost effective. Support is there at the Bureau for the labs if they wish to seek accreditation. That's very good. So there's close collaboration between the organization and the related organizations. Definitely. Now let's speak about the upcoming observance, which is on June 9th, World Accreditation Day. What are some of the activities that the Bureau will be undertaking to mark that observance? The activity on June 14th, we have been an awareness training for testing and calibration labs. And we're targeting them because last year we targeted the medical labs. So this year we're focusing on testing and calibration labs. So we have invited both laboratories from the private and the public sector. And the reason that we have done that, chosen those labs, is because we have a national diagnostic facility that's soon to be completed. And so we recognize the need, of course, some we preach quality. If you're doing something right, you start doing it right the first time. So which is why we actually sensitize them to the requirements of the standard so that when they start working, they could start working with the standard, start implementing it. And so the training, it's a one-day training, of course hosted by the SLBS. And that particular standard, ISO 17.025, it's particular requirements for the competence of testing and calibration labs. So it focuses on what a lab, how a lab needs to operate with the end goal of having accurate and reliable tests. And so it looks at the environment, the lab environment. It looks at the suitability of the equipment that they use, how the equipment is maintained. It looks at things related to the measurement, traceability of measurements and whatever calibration data that they use, the competence of the personnel as well, quality assurance that's being done. So the standard touches on that, as well as we're going to focus on, there's what you call a stepwise improvement process that if a lab wishes to seek accreditation, this is how these are the steps that you take. So it more or less makes the process easier instead of being overwhelmed with this standard and not knowing what to do. So we would also focus on that during the training. Now, you've articulated the importance of accreditation and the role of the Bureau in that regard. What sort of challenges are you confronted with in terms of getting people to embrace the importance of accreditation? Okay, the problem or the challenge that we actually have been, and we recognize the need for regulators to understand what accreditation is and how they could actually use accreditation to make their work easier. For example, let's give an example like you would have a regulator that's responsible, say for monitoring water quality. Now a way accreditation can be used is that if what has been tested, then the lab needs to become accredited so that you as a regulator would not have to do too much monitoring to verify that the lab is doing what it's supposed to be doing and that you can actually rely on those results coming out of the lab. Two weeks ago, we had a session on the really the use of standards as far as establishing technical regulations and whatnot, and so I guess in the future, the SLBS would definitely be looking at how we could target those regulators, government, for example, and the way that they can actually use standards to make work easier for them. And that would go for also for the private sector as well as the regulatory agencies? Yeah, because you have private labs, you have private inspection bodies, well we don't have private certification bodies, the only certification body is at the Bureau of Standards, and so we do have a lot of work still to do with accreditation. No doubt, we are running out of time, so perhaps you would want to see a few final words. Well, as far as the day is concerned, the observance of World Accreditation Day and your own role as a Bureau of Standards in ensuring that more persons come and go. Yeah, so next week is just the beginning of a very, I guess, important activity. We would have the training with the labs, and of course there would be follow-up. So if the lab needs added assistance, we would try to walk them through the process of accreditation. And I am hoping that, of course, all the labs that we have invited, because we're trying to have an attendance of about 20, 25 persons. So I'm hoping that everybody recognizes the need. And the training is for free, so I mean, why not? So we have already invited those persons to attend, and so I'm hoping that we would have a successful activity next week, and it will just be the start of something very important. Thank you, Dr. Dubizon. Well, we've exhausted our time on the issues and answers today. My guest has been Dr. Dubizon, who has had a certification at the St. Lucia Bureau of Standards, who so ably educated us on the importance of accreditation and the role of the Bureau in that regard. I also want to thank you for watching. Until next time, I'm Julia Tepita.