I have blogged before about why you should not postpone audits (see http://johnmasoncomau.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/change-certification-dates-good-idea.html) but it can also impact on your certification status as well. In particular around anniversaries of post certification audit plans and the biggy, the recertification audit itself.
JAS-ANZ mandates that an audit must be completed within 12 months of the last review. Within, not ‘around’. Should they review your certification service provider’s files and find that you are out of date, they will instruct your provider to suspend the certificate. If you miss the expiry date of your certificate because you defer an audit, it will be suspended or cancelled effective on the expiry date.
Missing an expiry date has many complications, not the least that your certificate won’t be accepted in tenders. But it also means additional costs because stage 1 reviews may need to conducted.
The main reason to keep audit dates and in particular the recertification ones is that there are lead times from the audit to the final report. Now this can be as short as a day, but due to the time of year (remember June and December are log jams), the complexity of the audit, the number of locations etc. etc it can be a number of weeks and if you are in this situation, make sure your provider is aware and that the process needs to be expedited.
However, as always, the easiest way to stop the above from happening is to be proactive with your provider, set timely dates and stick with them.
previous blogs;
http://johnmasonstuff.blogspot.com/
http://john-mason-stuff.blogspot.com/
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