Impartiality Policy
Impartiality Policy Statement
PEEB is the legal entity responsible for personnel certification activities; reference to PEEB in this Policy and Public Statement refers to these legal entities.
PEEB its Director, Staff and Subcontractors (if any) fully understands the importance of impartiality in undertaking its Personnel certification activities. PEEB will therefore ensure that in all its dealings with Candidates or potential Candidates all employees or other personnel are and will remain impartial. To ensure that impartiality is both maintained and can be demonstrated the following principals have been established.
- PEEB Certificates are only issued following a review by an independent authorised and competent member of the management team (who has not been involved in the examination) to ensure that no interest shall predominate
- PEEB does not offer (and has never offered) training related to personnel certification or any other form of consultancy to candidate.
- PEEB does not offer (and has never offered) an internal examination service to its certified persons.
- PEEB does not own or have any interest (financial or otherwise) in any other company that offers certification or training related to personnel certification services.
- PEEB does not have (and will not form) any relationships with companies who offer consultancy or training or other services that can be construed as having an impact on the certification services provided by PEEB Any proposed relationship between PEEB and any other company will undergo a risk assessment by the Committee for Impartiality prior to that relationship being formalised. Any current relationships with companies, organisations and individuals will be risk assessed on a regular basis to ensure that the relationship does not impact upon the impartiality of the personnel certification process.
- Individuals employed by or otherwise contracted to PEEB are required to document and record their current and past relationships with all companies. Any situation past or present which may present a potential conflict of interest is required by PEEB to be declared. PEEB will use the information to identify any threats to impartiality and will not use that individual in any capacity unless they can demonstrate that there is no conflict of interest.
- PEEB will not allocate a member of staff or subcontractor to a management system examination where any past relationship has existed. Exceptionally and at the discretion of the Certification Manager or Director an individual or subcontractor may be allocated to a management system examination where a past relationship has existed but there has been no relationship for a minimum of 2 years.
- PEEB does not and will not offer any commission, (‘finders fees or other inducements) to any individual or company in respect of referrals of Candidates unless:
- The terms and conditions of any such referral are clearly established and can be demonstrated and it can also be demonstrated that the fee is for a referral and the fact that a commission has been paid will in no way affect the outcome of an examination.
- A risk assessment (to establish the potential for an unacceptable threat to impartiality) has been carried out on the process through which any such payment is made to an individual or organisation (normally a training institute) requesting the commission for referrals.
- All such payments are documented, recorded, and traceable and accompanied by a purchase order and invoice.
- PEEB does not offer specific training to any company in respect of implementing a particular standard for that company. Any training offered by PEEB is general in nature and available to all candidates, who wish to attend.
- PEEB will ensure that it is not linked or marketed in any way which links it with the activities of a training related to personnel certification and will take appropriate action should any such link be identified.
- Examiners and invigilators and others involved in the certification process are not and will not be put under any pressure and will not be influenced in any way to come to a particular conclusion regarding the result of an examination.
PEEB Impartiality Norms
- No outsourcing of Examinations to Training Institutes.
- No Referral Fees to be paid to Training Institutes.
- Facts based communication to Candidates / Training Institutes.
- Adherence to all Accreditation and other PEEB
- PEEB shall not carry–out any other conflicting services other than its core business of Certification.
- PEEB shall not employ any professional conflicting its ethical policies.
- PEEB shall not allow any of its Examiners and invigilators to market the services and conduct the examinations for the same candidate.
- PEEB shall not allow any of its Examiners and invigilators to carry out financial transactions with Candidates / Training Institutes.
- PEEB shall not carry–out business with any Training Institutes inducing pressures to compromise impartiality.
- All employees of PEEB shall disclose any situation impairing the business ethics.
- PEEB shall not allow any of the Examiners and invigilators to carry out examinations for the customer at least for 2 years from the date of relinquishment from their services for the candidate.
- PEEB shall not allow any Examiners and invigilators to compromise on the examination timing as required as per the accreditation / PEEB
- PEEB shall not allow any Examiners and invigilators to conduct the examination for the customer for which it has not been approved for.
- PEEB shall maintain transparency about all information.
- No Examiners and invigilators shall divulge any confidential information of the customer to any third party without written consent from the customer and approval by Director
- No Examiners and invigilators shall carry any customer information with them after the usage period. All customer information shall be returned after usage.
- Utmost care / verification to be carried out for granting the right scope of certification.
- Any unethical practice observed should be notified to the management at the earliest.
- PEEB shall not allow any of its Examiners and invigilators to accept any gifts from customer / Training Institutes of value.
- PEEB shall not allow any Examiners and invigilators to conduct examination for the organization where any of its family members / close relatives are involved at a decision-making position.
- Disciplinary actions for non-adhering to impartiality policies shall be taken by the Management in consultation with Impartiality Committee.
Public Statement (as it appears on PEEB’s website)
PEEB, its Director, Managers, Staff, and others involved in the Certification of Persons fully understand the importance of impartiality in undertaking its Personnel certification activities.
PEEB will therefore ensure that in its dealings with Candidates or potential Candidates, all employees or other personnel involved in Personnel certification activities are, and will remain, impartial.
To ensure that impartiality is both maintained and can be demonstrated, PEEB has identified, and risk assessed all relationships which may result in a conflict of interest or pose a threat to impartiality.