Certificates of Accreditation and Re-Accreditation were presented to the Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards (TTBS) Certification Division and the Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards Implementation Division, respectively, by the Jamaica National Agency for Accreditation (JANAAC), during a Trinidad & Tobago Trade Mission breakfast meeting, held at the Hyatt Regency Trinidad, recently. Participating (from left) are Manager, Implementation Division, Gerard Maxwell; Chief Executive Officer at JANAAC, Sharonmae Shirley; Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce, Senator the Hon. Aubyn Hill; Chairman of the TTBS, Lawford Dupres; Minister of Trade and Industry, Trinidad & Tobago, Senator the Hon. Paula Gopee-Scoon; TTBS Executive Director, José Trejo and Manager, TTBS Certification Division, Rodney Ramnath.
The Certification Division of the Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards (TTBS) is the first certification body to be accredited by the Jamaica National Agency for Accreditation (JANAAC) to the ISO/IEC 17021-1:2015 Standard for Quality Management Systems.
The certificate was presented to the Division at a special breakfast meeting that took place on a recent trade mission to Trinidad and Tobago, led by the Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce, Senator the Hon. Aubyn Hill.
A certificate of Re-Accreditation was also presented to the TTBS Implementation Division to the ISO/IEC 17020:2012 Standard for Inspection, following its first accreditation by JANAAC in 2017.
In an interview with JIS News, JANAAC’s Chief Executive Officer, Sharonmae Shirley, said this was a hallmark achievement for both JANAAC and Trinidad and Tobago.
“It was a signal achievement not just for [the] TTBS and their entity becoming accredited but for JANAAC providing this service, so we were elated when we were able to present these certificates to the Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards, an agency of their own Ministry of Trade and Industry,” she said.
Meanwhile, TTBS Executive Director, José Trejo, shared that “achieving accreditation for the Certification Division and maintaining accreditation for the Implementation Division are critical for maintaining the highest level of quality and credibility in our services”.
“This will benefit Trinidad and Tobago as we continue to develop our economy and build a successful and prosperous society which is based on standards and quality,” he said.
Ms. Shirley pointed out that “JANAAC’s international recognition for the other standards that it provides accreditations to are based on the work that we do with the individual clients that we have”.
“In order for us to have this added layer of recognition for the certification accreditation programme, we had to accredit at least one certification body, and the TTBS accreditation enables JANAAC to seek recognition for this programme with our international partners,” she noted.
These accreditations will also play a key role in strengthening a robust national and regional quality infrastructure.
“It will definitely support the TTBS Certification Division’s work in supporting their customers in Trinidad. It will also help the Caribbean region as a whole, because once we are strengthening the players in the market it means that the market itself is now becoming more robust and the regional quality infrastructure is strengthened,” the JANAAC CEO told JIS News.
The JANAAC, which is the only internationally recognised accreditation body in the English-speaking Caribbean, delivers technical training and best-in-class accreditation services to conformity assessment bodies (CABs) such as laboratories and inspection and certification bodies in 10 CARICOM states.
The international recognition of JANAAC’s accreditation programmes results from its signatory status to the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) and the Inter-American Accreditation Cooperation (IAAC) Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MLA).
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