Gulf News journalist wins award for ISO racket expose
Farooqui honoured in India for investigating how the ISO 9001:2015 certificate can be bought
The Chief of the Indian Army Staff, General Bipin Rawat, conferred the Rajasthan Patrika’s K.C. Kulish International Award for Excellence in Journalism on Gulf News journalist Mazhar Farooqui at a glittering ceremony in New Delhi on Monday.
Farooqui received the award for his investigative story ‘We are a bogus firm yet we got an ISO certificate’ published in XPRESS, a sister publication of Gulf News, on February 16, 2017.
The story exposed how the much-sought after ISO 9001:2015 certificate can be bought in the UAE by anyone who is able to pay for it. Two XPRESS journalists, including Farooqui, had posed as directors of a non-existent firm VDH to approach a Dubai-based accredited agency authorised to issue ISO certificates.
They gave them a copy of VDH’s ‘trade licence’, an email address, phone number and Dh4,000 in cash. Less than 36 hours later, they had the certificate in their hands.