Leader Certification Sdn. Bhd.

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Our Policies

Impartiality & Confidentiality Policy

The management of fairness, openness, confidentiality, impartiality, and conflict of interest is very important to Leader. Our directors and staff are committed to ensure the good name of Leader is not harmed in any way that may lead to impeded access to customers, impartiality, or conflict of interest.

LEADER will:

  1. Monitor all our customer audits and carry out internal audits to identify any sources of, or breaches of confidentiality, impartiality, and conflict of interest with Clients.
  2. Maintain an Impartiality & Confidentiality Committee to oversee confidentiality, impartiality, and conflict of interest.
  3. Give auditors the authority to abandon or suspend an audit or examination if there is a breach of confidentiality, threat to impartiality or conflict of interest. An investigation will be carried out and if the matters are resolved, then the audit and examination will be started at a later time. Auditors can report any perceived infringements to Accreditation Body and the Impartiality & Confidentiality Committee. The Impartiality & Confidentiality Committee can appeal or report infringements to AB.
  4. Use an application review as the record of managing impartiality and conflicts of interests. Monitor Client business levels to ensure no threat can develop.

Confidentiality

LEADER will:

  1. Set up legally enforceable contracts with staff, subcontractors, Clients, and the Impartiality & Confidentiality Committee ensure that Client confidentiality is respected at all times and no disclosures.
  2. For its clients, apply confidentiality rules to external bodies, committees and individuals acting for, or on behalf of, LEADER.
  3. Inform the Client in advance of the information it intends to put on an external domain or pass to others.
  4. Treat information about a client from other sources (such as a complaint or a legal regulator) as confidential.

Impartiality

LEADER will:

  1. Maintain impartiality to deliver certification that brings confidence.
  2. Make an independent and impartial certification decision based on evidence of conformity with a standard collected during an audit or examination.
  3. Change auditors if familiarity with the Client is suspected or the Client makes threats.
  4. Seek objective evidence during an audit. The evidence can be records, observed or oral.
  5. Seek to verify evidence with other evidence from another part of the Client’s business, if possible.
  6. Be resilient to intimidation threats.
  7. Take steps to rectify any/all inappropriate claims by any consultancy organisation that certification with LEADER would be simpler, easier, faster, or less expensive if they were engaged.
  8. Not provide certification when there is a threat to impartiality.
  9. Not provide certification services to any other business related to LEADER, its parent company(s) or subsidiary company(s).
  10. Not provide internal audits or certification consultancy, design, manufacture, install, promote, sell and other services to current Client’s schemes that its certificates.
  11. Not provide certification services to a Client to whom we have provided internal audit or consultancy services, unless two years have passed from the end of the contract.
  12. Not certify the management systems of another certification body.
  13. Not allow others to influence our decisions on granting certification.
  14. Not allow the same person to carry out an audit and examination and to review them.
  15. Not subcontract audit services to a business where there is a threat to impartiality; for example, a management consultancy business, but this excludes individuals.
  16. Not market our services in connection with any other management systems consultancy.
  17. Recognise that threats to impartiality can come from ownership, governance, management, personnel shared resources, finances, contracts, marketing, and payment of commission or inducement for new Clients.
  18. Recognise that a Client will pay for certification services and that is a source of impartiality.
  19. Recognise that personal self-interest is a source of impartiality.
  20. Recognise that a person carrying out a review of an audit is a source of
    impartiality. 

Conflict of Interests

LEADER will:

  1. Take responsibility for demonstrating that there is no conflict of interest with a Client.
  2. Ensure no LEADER-related business has provided certification or consultancy services.
  3. Defined any potential conflict of interests and impartiality to be analyzed then send to Impartiality & Confidentiality Committee for review purpose.

Obligation

LEADER shall ensure all internal and external staffs sign the PY01_F01_Declaration of Impartiality & Confidentiality.

All personnel and staff including subcontractor and committee member, if any, shall require to sign PY01_F01_Declaration of Impartiality & Confidentiality on annual basis.