Certification Guidelines

1. Services 

These certification guidelines are hereby referred to as the agreement and constitutes the entire agreement between the parties.

We will apply care, skill and technical expertise, knowledge and experience. We will use our own intellectual property.

2. Availability / Cooperation of the Client

Accredited programs are usually competency based which means that training and assessment or recognition of current skills and knowledge In order for us to complete our work effectively, we require close cooperation with you and your team. Specifically;

• You must be available. This may be in various forms including phone calls, meetings, emails, and for site visits.
• You need to supply information. You agree to use best endeavours to provide the necessary information to complete our work.
• You must not obstruct the performance of our consultant/auditor in meeting the requirements of our work.
• You and your workers will co-operate with us and not delay our work unnecessarily or without notice.
• You will allow access to an accreditation body’s team, upon request, to witness how we perform our work.

3. Project outputs & limitations

The deliverables will be a certification report and a recommendation by the auditor on whether certification should be maintained or granted. A certificate will be issued once all non-conformances are rectified by you and accepted by Compass Assurance Services.

Any information provided by us is based on the best efforts, experience and knowledge of our consultants/auditors.

The deliverables and advice provided by us is not a legal opinion.  We don’t employ lawyers and will not provide a legal opinion or anything that should be considered as a legal opinion.

4. Use of Certification Marks & Accreditation Symbols

Certification marks must only be used in a way that accurately reflects the scope of certification e.g. Sites and locations and management systems.

You must not use our certification mark or an accreditation symbol in a way that could be misinterpreted as endorsing a product (i.e. inferring product certification), laboratory tests, calibration or inspection reports, or in any other way that suggests a government authorisation or endorsement. Accreditation symbols shall also not be used in the absence of our logo and yours, or in any other misleading or ambiguous way.

5. Certification Status

You agree to not make any misleading or ambiguous statements with regard to your certification status nor imply your management system certification endorses or certifies a product or service through any medium such as communications, advertising or marketing.

You agree to amend or withdraw advertising or marketing material as required if your certification scope is reduced or your certificate withdrawn or suspended.

You agree not to use your certification in such a manner that would bring Compass Assurance Services and/or the certification system into disrepute and lose public trust.

6. Certification Requirements

We agree to give no less than 90 days’ notice of changes to our requirements for certification that affect you (including changes to these guidelines).

You agree to comply with certification requirements including changes to certification requirements and to allow Compass Assurance Services access to verify your compliance.

7. Confidentiality

All information accessed during a project will remain confidential and only be disclosed to authorised parties with your approval.

All project outputs will remain confidential and only be disclosed to authorised parties with your approval, except where accreditation obligations require information to be shared with JAS-ANZ, or made publicly available as required by law.

We expect you to afford us the same sensitivity particularly with respect to project methodology and other trade secrets. This does not extend to telling anyone how much you enjoyed working with us.

8. Availability of Resources/Consultants

All resources are subject to availability and selected to meet your requirements and those of Compass Assurance Services. If you have specific needs ,your preferences should be expressed to us as soon as possible.

Any changes to an agreed scope of work may result in a change to the resources which need to be deployed.

9. Intellectual Property

All tools, systems, information, methodology and other resources used in the fulfilment of our work shall remain our property and cannot be used by any party other than you as our client.

Intellectual property cannot be resold, traded or passed on by you to any other party without our written permission.

10. Project Coordination

We will arrange all the logistics and administrative matters arising from the work unless otherwise agreed.

11. Postponement or Cancellation of Audit

All postponements must be agreed by both parties. For any postponement occurring within ten (10) working days of a scheduled project initiation date will incur a cost of up to 60% of the total project cost. Non-refundable or transferrable travel & accommodation costs will be payable in full.

12. Termination of Agreement

Written notice is required for either party to terminate this agreement. In addition, should the termination occur within ten (10) working days of scheduled audit, the provisions of Clause 11 will apply.

13. Client Sites & Offices

Compass Assurance Services will maintain a record of your certified sites and offices. You must inform us of any closures that are within the scope of your certification as soon as is practicable. Failure to do so is considered a misuse of certification and may result in suspension or withdrawal of certification.

The agreement extends to all sites and subsidiaries included within the scope of certification and all sites and subsidiaries that apply for certification.

14. Significant Events

You must inform Compass Assurance Services without delay of any significant events.  This includes but is not limited to changes to legal, commercial or ownership status of your business, change of address for any site, change of scope of operations under the certified system, major changes to the management system or to managerial roles. For safety certification this extends to fatal incidents, serious injuries, occupational disease or legal action by a regulatory authority. In addition to this you must inform us of any OHS related findings by third parties before your next audit.

Compass Assurance Services may conduct an additional audit at the client’s expense or take any other action it deems necessary in such a case including suspension or cancellation of a certificate.

15. Suspension or Withdrawal

Compass holds the certification process in the highest regard. The Client’s certification shall be suspended when:

• the client’s certified management system has persistently or seriously failed to meet certification requirements
• the client does not allow surveillance or recertification audits to be conducted at the required frequencies
• the client commits a serious breach of the Compass certification guidelines that is not remedied in a timely manner
• the client has voluntarily requested a suspension.

Failure to correct the cause of suspension within 6 months shall result in Compass withdrawing or reducing the scope of the client’s certification or taking any further action it deems necessary.

16. Period of Validity

These certification guidelines are subject to change with 90 days notice by Compass Assurance Services.

17. Insurance

Compass Assurance Services Pty Limited maintains both Professional Indemnity Insurance (limit of cover $5,000,000.00) and Public Liability Insurance (limit of cover $20,000,000.00). Copies of policies can be provided on request.

18. Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law our liability, in aggregate, any claims made against Compass Assurance Services Pty Limited will be limited to the fees payable within the proposal / agreement.
We will not be liable for consequential losses.
If we are not able to limit our liability to the fees payable within the proposal / agreement our liability to you will be limited to re-supply of services.
You will release us, our employees, agents, sub-consultants and servants, from all liability to you one year after the cessation of any certification made by Compass Assurance Services.
You will indemnify us from any claim by or liability to a third party associated with the delivery of this work including the costs of defending or settling such a claim.

19. Legal Jurisdiction

This Agreement shall be assessed and interpreted under the laws of Queensland, Australia. Both parties submit entirely to the jurisdiction of the Queensland courts of law and non-exclusive jurisdiction.