One applicant certification body has two owners (persons) . These two owners are also the owners of another company. The second company is a provider of the certified services. This two people owns all the shares of both companies.
Do you consider that the second company (the provider of certified services) is under the “organizational control” of the certification body?
4.2.6 The certification body and any part of the same legal entity and entities under its organizational control (see 7.6.4) shall not:
- be the designer, manufacturer, installer, distributer or maintainer of the certified product;
- be the designer, implementer, operator or maintainer of the certified process;
- be the designer, implementer, provider or maintainer of the certified service;
7.6.4 A certification body’s organizational control shall be one of the following:
- whole or majority ownership of another entity by the certification body;
- majority participation by the certification body on the board of directors of another entity;
- a documented authority by the certification body over another entity in a network of legal entities (in which the certification body resides), linked by ownership or board of director control.
The standard states “whole or majority ownership of another entity” by the certification body, as a mean to exercise organizational control but nothing is said about the same situation for the owners of the certification body.
September 2017
The two persons own all the shares of the CB, then they are legally responsible for the CB and they have full authority on the CB. They shall be then considered as being the CB.
Therefore, the answer is yes: the second company (providing the certified services) is under the organizational control of the CB
Clause 4.2.3 should also be noted, this requires the CB to identify risks to its impartiality on an ongoing basis, including risks that arise from its relationships, or from the relationships of its personnel. The Note to this clause states that a relationship that threatens the impartiality of the certification body can be based on ownership, governance, management, personnel. Such common ownership should be identified as a risk to impartiality.