Illegal Certification: Can Accreditation Bodies Handle the Sherlock Holmes Cloak?
BYIAF SECRETARIATON AUGUST 30, 2023
Anara Tleuova Head, International Cooperation Department
National Accreditation Center
Kazakhstan as an independent state appeared on the map in 1991 and belongs to one of the youngest countries in the world. Everything is new for our state: a market economy and the formation of democratic institutions, digitalization and technical regulation. The ascent to the heights of quality, where the flags of developed countries have been flying for a long time, our state began relatively recently. One of the most difficult sections of this path is “gray certificates” – this is how we call fraudulent forgeries under the guise of genuine certificates issued in violation of certification procedures. In this article, we want to share the experience of getting rid of gray certificates by the National Accreditation Center (NCA) of Kazakhstan and support the discussion about the role of accreditation bodies in defeating illegal certification on a global scale.
The term “certificate” is formed from two Latin roots: certum – true, and facere – to do, which in total means “to do right”. Certification was conceived and implemented as an extremely useful undertaking, the purpose of which is to guarantee that the consumer receives a high-quality service or product, without throwing money away in exchange for a fake one.
It is not known for certain who first came up with the idea of forging certificates, or when, but the fact that falsifications have been practiced for a long time can be assumed with metrological accuracy. In one of the stories about Sherlock Holmes, the famous detective of the 19th century presented to the royal person a version of the forgery of his personal letter on branded royal paper, which indicates the practice of falsifying even the king’s personal documents in the distant past.
According to NCA statistics, from the beginning of 2023 to the end of July, during the monitoring of the work of conformity assessment bodies in Kazakhstan, 41 certificates, 15 declarations of conformity and 8 test reports were canceled, and five accreditation certificates were revoked.
The NCA sent documents on violations of 93 certificates of conformity of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), 72 declarations of conformity of the EAEU and 10 certificates of conformity of Kazakhstan to the authorized body – the Committee for Technical Regulation and Metrology of the Ministry of Trade and Integration of Kazakhstan.
Talgat Momyshev, NCA General Director
“The leadership of Kazakhstan clearly and unambiguously conducts a course on combating corruption, including the field of technical regulation. Digitalization plays a big role in this. In our country, a large number of public services have been transferred to an electronic format, which is aimed at completely eliminating the possibility of bribing officials. The database of certificates of business entities has been digitized in the country, you can file a complaint online about a fake certificate,” says NCA General Director Talgat Momyshev. “The NCA, within the framework of its powers, is endowed with the function of monitoring accredited entities for the legality of issuing certificates of conformity by them. However, accreditation in Kazakhstan is voluntary, as a result of which the monitoring of the NCA applies only to accredited entities of the conformity assessment market, reflected in our register.”
Yerzhan Karasaev, NCA Deputy General Director
“The scope of our powers is the certification bodies accredited by the NCA, of which there were 73 in the country at the end of July 2023, which is relatively small compared to the non-accredited pool, since accreditation in our country is voluntary,” explains Yerzhan Karasaev, NCA Deputy General Director. “NCA joined the fight against fake certificates and other documents in the field of conformity assessment a little over three years ago. We have the right to monitor the certificates and declarations of Kazakhstan’s accredited CBs and four countries of the Eurasian Economic Union: Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Russia. The NCA conducts monitoring and transfers materials on the identified violations to the supervising state body.”
The fight against fake certificates is continuing in Kazakhstan with varying success, and the NCA sees two reasons for this:
Technological imperfection of certification, in due to which it is possible to obtain a “drawn” certificate issued without observing the necessary verification procedures, in the absence of the necessary testing facilities and laboratory equipment, without research and samples.
The lack of clear interaction between all subjects of trade relations, from the manufacturer to the end user, when the detection of fakes occurs already at the stage of their prompt seizure by the accreditation body or law enforcement agencies, in the absence of systemic protection against counterfeiting.