Guyana first in region to attain ISO laboratory, inspectorate accreditations

The recent accreditation of the Government Analyst Food & Drugs Department ( GA- FDD) as a Conformity Assessment Body (CAB) to the International Standards Organization’s (ISO) 17020 and 17025 standards could mark a “game-changing development” for the productive sector in Guyana since the accreditation now equips the country to make critical and internationally recognised standards assessments of some types of local goods being produced here and targeting international markets.

This is definitely a signal moment for the department in terms of how we can now serve the productive sector,” GA-FDD Director Marlon Cole told Stabroek Business, while disclosing that the department had already communicated “the good news” to both local public and private sector agencies “to ensure that they are now aware that we are in a position to provide a reassuring ‘green light’ with regard to the quality of the goods that they produce for external markets.

The ISO 17025 is the international standard for the testing and calibration of laboratories. It is a set of requirements those laboratories use to show that they operate a quality management system and that they are technically competent to do the work that they do. The ISO 17020 specifies requirements for the competence of bodies performing inspection and for the impartiality and consistency of their inspection processes.

The GA-FDD is now the only agency of its kind in the Caribbean in possession of ISO 17025 Laboratory Accreditation and ISO 17020 Inspectorate Accreditation, an achievement which Cole told this newspaper is one which Guyana can be particularly proud of. “In circumstances where standards accreditation is crucial to successful participation in international trade I believe that this is an important moment,” Cole declared.

The GA-FDD Director told the Stabroek Business that while the accomplishment was good news for the productive sector as a whole, he was particularly pleased that it will redound to the benefit of the country’s agro-processing sector. “We at the GA-FDD are aware of how hard those mostly small businesses in the agro-processing sector work to bring their goods to a standard that would make them acceptable to the international market. This breakthrough, therefore, is as much for them as it is for the other sectors. We look forward to helping them make a mark on the international market,” Cole was quoted as saying.

Over the weekend Cole told the Stabroek Business that “official approval for our inspection activities” which benefits from ISO oversight had been granted by the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) which had overseen the qualifying inspection of the GA-FDD’s laboratory procedures. Cole said that the qualifying inspection procedures were completed in September this year following the local laboratory services being accredited to the ISO17025 standard by the Jamaica National Agency for Accreditation (JANAAC) in 2018.

And following the conferral of official clearance for the GAFDD to serve as an ISO-accredited certifying inspection body, Cole told the Stabroek Business that he had immediately notified entities in Guyana “whose activities require precisely these kinds of services.” In his communication with the public and private sector bodies Cole said that he had conveyed the news that “specific documents such as licences, certificates, and permits, emanating from the GA-FDD will now be recognized by the international community.” Consignments cleared by the GA-FDD will now bear the logos of the accreditation bodies. “This significant milestone augurs well for our local manufacturing industry whose products the GAFDD will continue to license and or certify, albeit with what are now strengthened internationally recognized credentials,” Cole added.