Appeals and complaints procedure

This procedure establishes the procedure for dealing with complaints and appeals in the Certification Body “Central Asia Certification”

TERMS, DEFINITIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS

Appeal – an appeal by an interested party against a company’s decision regarding the certification process, certification decisions, grievance decisions, validity period, scope and/or scope of a certificate.

Complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction with the fulfillment of the requirements of the certification system by the officials and/or employees of the MSCB (Management Systems Certification Body) or the application of the normative documents of the MSCB, as well as an expression of disagreement of interested persons with the actions of the certified organization in the course of its activities within the framework of the issued certificate.

Interested party – a person or group (legally or privately) interested in the activities or success of the organization.

Stakeholders may include persons who:

• Are certified customers, or are applicants for certification;
• Are consumers of certified customers or applicants for certification;
• Are under the influence of or dependent upon certified customers or applicants for certification; etc.

Appellant of appeal – the person, organization or its representative filing the appeal. The appellant may be any person/organization participating in the certification process or interested in the results of the certification carried out by OCCM or the person/organization that has received such a certificate.

CC – Certification Council;

Responsible employee – The MSCB employee designated by the MSCB Director of Complaint Management.

MSCB – Management Systems Certification Body LLC “Central Asia Certification”.

MSCB “Central Asia Certification” LLC is committed to the effective and efficient management of complaints and appeals. This process is an important tool to protect the interests of MSCB clients and other users of certification against errors, omissions or unjustified actions

All complaints and appeals received by MSCB are registered and stored electronically in the MSCB database.

GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE

Before appealing to the CC, the complainant must follow the procedure below by filing a grievance directly with MSCB .

The complainant files a grievance or appeal directly with the MSCB Director, in which:

• The subject matter of the complaint or grievance is stated;
• Potential parties involved in the conflict are identified;
• The involvement of the complainant in the events that preceded the application and caused the complaint to the certification body is described;
• a solution is proposed (if necessary).

The complaint must be filed within 30 days from the date of the event that caused the complaint.

The complaint is reviewed by the Director of MSCB within 2 days of its receipt after registration in the database.

The Director has the right to reject a complaint that does not meet the above requirements on the merits. The denial must be in writing, explain the reason for the denial and indicate the possibility of correcting them and, information on how the deficiencies can be corrected.

Notification of the refusal to consider the complaint is prepared by the responsible executor at the direction of the Director of MSCB and is sent to the complainant at the addresses listed in the application. The said notice must be sent no later than 3 days from the date of the relevant decision.

The decision to refuse to accept the complaint as not meeting the requirements for its filing,
may be appealed to the CCby filing an appeal.

MSCB has 30 days to review the grievance application. The time countdown begins when the complaint is received that meets the eligibility requirements.

If, in the opinion of the director, the application is substantiated, appointing responsible grievance officers. Appointment of responsible staff members shall be based on the specifics of the grievance filed.

All grievances, complaints or appeals shall be recorded as MSCB Non-Compliances.

The initial response to the organization should include:

• information about the receipt of the complaint;
• information on the registration and registration number of the complaint;
• information on the timing of the complaint/complaint review.

The initial response should be sent to the applicant no later than 1 week after the receipt of the application.

After the registration of non-compliance, the responsible employee analyzes the situation set forth in the application and prepares a draft decision on the complaint and response to the applicant.

During the analysis, the responsible employee performs all necessary actions in order to collect the information necessary to prepare a decision, in particular:

• Identification of stakeholders;
• Correspondence with interested parties regarding the complaint.

When reviewing a claim, the responsible employee, on a mandatory basis, sends a letter to the party against which the claim has been filed, demanding clarification of the situation.

If, during the review, the complainant and the party against which the claim was filed, resolve their dispute, the responsible employee prepares a draft of the relevant decision. In this case, if the respondent of the claim is a certified MSCB client, in the nearest to the time of submission of the claim the MS check is made concerning the subject of the complaint.

In case the respondent party does not respond to the requests of MSCB and does not go to reasonable cooperation in order to settle the dispute, MSCB reserves the right, if necessary, to audit the certified organization without prior notice in order to review the claims received by MSCB about the activities/products of this organization, to suspend or revoke the certificate of compliance.

In case of consideration of the complaint the responsible employee of MSCB , conducts an investigation in order to identify the internal and/or external causes of the complaint and prepares solutions aimed at satisfying the complaint, eliminating the cause of the identified non-compliance, improving the functioning of the QMS of MSCB .

If the complainant agrees with the proposed measures, or the response from the complainant is not received within 2 weeks from the date of the relevant letter (fax, e-mail), after the corrective and preventive actions the complaint is closed. The decision to close the complaint is made by the director based on the report of the responsible employee.

Effectiveness of corrective and preventive actions taken as part of work on complaints is verified as part of internal audits of the QMS.

In case the complainant is not satisfied with the decision, he may appeal it to the MSCB Certification Board in accordance with the established procedure.

Decisions on complaints and grievances are brought by the Director of MSCB to the members of the Certification Board during the next scheduled meeting, at which the members of the Certification Board consider, among other things, issues related to the impartiality in the consideration of the complaint/claim/dispute.

In the event that the Certification Board decides that the decision of the Director of MSCB needs to be modified or amended, such decisions shall be taken by the Certification Board and the applicant and, if necessary, other interested parties shall be informed in a timely manner.

The applicant shall appeal to the Certification Board in cases where:

• inability to resolve the issue reflected in the complaint;
• Disagreement with the decision of the Director of MSCB on the complaint;
• The certification process; the certification decisions; the failure to resolve the issue reflected in the complaint;
• certification decisions;
• the validity period, scope and/or scope of the certificate.

The Certification Council shall act in accordance with and on the basis of this procedure and the Regulations of the Certification Council (RCB) in considering appeals.

The appeal must be considered within 2 weeks of receipt and registration of the application. The appeal may be considered, subject to time limits, either at a scheduled or an extraordinary meeting of the Certification Board.

The appeal is filed by the party, whose right, in its opinion, is violated or the decision rendered does not satisfy the specified party on the merits.

An application to the Certification Board must:

• identify the party in respect of which it is filed or the parties to the proceedings, their postal addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, other coordinates for communication;
• contain a statement of the subject matter of the appeal;
• Describe the solutions and other results of contacts and hearings, which took place between the parties to the disputed legal relationship at the time of filing the dispute;
• describe the party-applicant’s interest in resolving the dispute and the reason for appealing to the Certification Board;
• contain a duly certified consent of the applicant about the consideration of the filed application by the Certification Board of the MSCB and the obligation to fulfill this application or, in case of disagreement with it, to appeal the decision in a higher instance;
• propose the decision for discussion in the CC;
• be signed by an authorized person with evidence of such authority attached;
• include annexes containing documentary or other evidence on which the complaint is based and a list listing such evidence and/or documents.

The application shall be received by mail, fax or e-mail or at the office of the Certification Body for Management Systems. After registration of the appeal, the application with the appeal is received by the Secretary of the Certification Board, who shall send copies of the application and all attached documents to the party mentioned in the application as a potential respondent.

In the event that the Secretary of the CC deems it necessary to involve someone to participate in the proceedings (giving explanations or providing documents), the CC shall send a copy of the application and the attached documents to that person, requesting his/her assistance in the proceedings.

The Secretary of the SC shall send the package of documents on the appeal to the members of the CC and agree on the date and form of the regular (extraordinary) meeting of the CC.

In all cases, when the CC needs to come to any decision on the issue adopted for consideration or decision on the dispute, the CC may do so:

• at a regular, scheduled meeting (in accordance with the Regulations);
• at an extraordinary meeting;
• at a conference call or teleconference;
• by written vote by mail, courier, fax, e-mail or other means of communication;
• by any other method permitted by applicable law.

Decisions made by the CC, should be handed over to the parties who participated in the proceedings, and copies, if necessary, are open to public access.

Information on the decision must be sent to the applicant of the appeal, if he was absent from the meeting of the CC within 2 days of receipt of information and no later than 4 weeks from the date of receipt of the application.

The CC decisions, contents, conclusions of any non-conformities in the OSSM certification system should be considered by the MSCB management.

Any non-conformities identified by the CC in the activities of the certified company, which are the subject of the respective decision, shall be reviewed by MSCB in accordance with the certification procedures. Any non-conformities identified by the CCin the activities of MSCB shall be analyzed by the management of MSCB and necessary improvement measures and corrective/preventive actions shall be developed. If necessary, the information on the corrective/preventive actions implemented is sent to the applicant no later than 6 months from the date of receipt of the application with the appeal.

Information on decisions taken by the CC members at the meeting, shall be forwarded to the Secretary of the CC for recording the preparation of a response to the applicant.

Decisions of the CC to consider appeals recorded in the minutes of the meeting of the CC, which is signed by all its members.

If any party was not satisfied with the decision of the MSCB Certification Board, the interested party, participating in the consideration of the dispute, may apply to the consideration of this dispute directly to a higher authority (accreditation body, notification, etc.).

In case of complaints and appeals, please send your appeal in writing, indicating the content of the complaint/appeal and contact information of the complainant to info@cac.uz, as well as to the address: 100084, Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Yunusabad district, 107B Amir Temur Avenue (IBC)

To learn more about the grievance/appeal process, call the following number: +998 90 958 00 98

Note

A complaint must be filed within thirty (30) days from the date of the event giving rise to the complaint. The complaint review period is two (2) days from its receipt and registration