Accreditation is a confidence-building measure, which allows authorities, economy and society to judge, if testing, inspection or certification bodies (conformity assessment bodies) fulfill specific tasks with the demanded high reliability.

What is Accreditation?

Accreditation means the formal recognition of the technical and organizational competence of an authority to execute a specific service as described in the scope of accreditation. Competence is the key to transparency, confidence and comparability.

Accreditation is a confidence-building measure, which allows authorities, economy and society to judge, if testing, inspection or certification bodies (conformity assessment bodies) fulfill specific tasks with the demanded high reliability.

Accreditation by DA is in accordance to the international conformity assessment standards established by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO).

International standards for accreditation

DA accredits against standards set by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The applicable standards are as follows.

• Testing and Calibration Laboratories:
  ISO/IEC 17025:2005 General Requirements for the Competence of Testing and calibration Laboratories.
• Medical Testing Laboratories:
  ISO 15189:2003 Medical Laboratories – Particular Requirements for Quality and Competence
• Inspection Bodies:
  ISO/IEC 17020:1998 General Criteria for the Operation of Various Types of Bodies Performing Inspection
• Certification Bodies:
  EN 45011:1999 General requirements for bodies operating product certification systems.

EN 45012:1999 General requirements for bodies operating assessment and certification/registration of quality systems
EN ISO/IEC 17024:2005 Conformity assessment. General requirements for bodies operating certification of persons (ISO/IEC 17024:2003)

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Benefits of Accreditation

Competence, Independence, Internacional knowledge, Professionalizm

• Prove your competence to customers
• Increase the opportunities for improvement
• Obtain an endorsement of independence, integrity and technical competence
• Use accreditation as a marketing tool
• Strengthen your reputation of professionalism
• Save costs by improving the management and technical systems in an effective and efficient way

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The accreditation process

1-Request for knowing the procedure

CAB submits a request to DA which is sent by fax or mail, to become acquainted with the accreditation procedures and the relevant documents necessary for accreditation.
After receiving their request, a preliminary meeting is set with the CAB, organized by the DA secretariat in which are clarified all the accreditation procedures, tariffs as well as documents to be submitted to DA for application. The package of documentation is provided to the CAB which is also available through the DA web site.

2-Application for accreditation

The CAB is deemed to be called “applicant for accreditation” after filling in the application form for accreditation according to the type of CAB, relevant check-list and submitting to DA all the necessary documentation according to the requirements of standard for which it is seeking accreditation

If there are major non conformities which may affect accreditation, and if documents submitted by the CAB do not comply with the standard for which it is seeking accreditation, the CAB is asked to fulfill all the shortfalls and to submit again to DA.If there are non conformities which do not affect accreditation, the accreditation procedure continues;

DA provides the CAB with the calculated costs. If the CAB agrees with calculated costs, DA and CAB sign the agreement. If CAB doesn’t agree the accreditation procedure is stopped. The deadline for approval or not of costs is 2 months. When the deadline is over and the CAB requests to be accredited, the procedure will start again from the beginning. If the CAB accepts the calculated costs, it must pay 40 % of them from this stage.

DA notifies the CAB about the composition of the assessment team and awaits its approval according to the form for notification of team members and its approval. Should the CAB agree with the proposal of assessment team, the procedure continues, if not, other names of assessors are proposed. Disapproval of part or entire assessment team must be justified. The last decision on assessment team is taken by General Director.

3- Pre assessment

The pre assessment visit will be performed in CAB premises. If major nonconformities are found during the pre assessment visit and in documentation, CAB must undertake corrective actions for solving them. All the nonconformities must be reported in one pre assessment report. After performing the corrective actions, CAB informs DA in writing about the solving of nonconformities and for readiness for assessment visit.

4-Assessment visit

The purpose of the assessment visit is to verify whether the CAB meets the requirements of the standard for which it is seeking to be accredited or not, to verify the implementation of the procedures and to assess the technical competence.

5-Assessment Report

Assessment results are given in a valuation report group, which suggests DA to give or not the accreditation, or to suspend it, depending on the non conformities  found

6- Decision

General Director of DA based in all information received and after receiving briefs and
opinions of the Advisory Board of Accreditation decision whether to accredit / reject the
certificate of accreditation. Accreditation is valid for four years.

7- Surveillance of the accreditation

The surveillance visits are organized by DA at least once a year in order to ensure that the accredited CAB continues to function according to the standard for which it was accredited. DA could organize additional surveillance visits (unplanned), in cases of any doubt related to the continuity of fulfillment of accreditation requirements such as changes to CAB, complains from clients or end users, as well as from reports of technical assessors, etc. DA informs CAB no later than two days before organization of the surveillance visit

8-Renewal of accreditation

In the end of accreditation or reaccreditations period, the CAB could submit a request to DA for renewing the accreditation. After receiving the request for re-accreditation, DA starts the procedure for accreditation. In order for the CAB not to work without accreditation (if it is interested), it is recommended to apply for accreditation some months before the expiry date.

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Feedback and Complaints

General Directorate of Accreditation (DA) is committed to improving our services and welcomes any comments or complaints that our stakeholders may wish to offer in relation to the services we provide.  It helps us to identify anything that we do well, or need to improve.

These services include the activities of Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs) of which DA must ensure that CABs action complaints in a timely manner.

DA encourages your feedback so that we can work together to resolve your concerns and complaints in a constructive and timely manner. Should you have any comment or complaint, please inform us, so that we can deal with the matter as expediently as possible.

CAB’s have the right to appeal any decisions made by DA through an appeals process.  Procedure DA – PM - 005 (below) outlines the appeals process.

The Procedure of appeals and complaints DA – PM - 005

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Tariffs

	Tariffs	Testing and calibration laboratories	Certification and inspection bodies
1	Request for accreditation	1000 lekë	1000 lekë
2	Tariffs for payment of experts (for each expert)	1000 lekë/orë	1000 lekë/orë
3	Administrative tariffs	3000 lekë	3000 lekë
4	Tariff or issuing the certificate	10.000 lekë	10.000 lekë
5	Tariffs for the use of accreditation symbol in the laboratories where number of analysis is 1-20.	20.000 lekë në vit	5% of yearly income
6	Tariffs for the use of accreditation symbol in the laboratories where number of analysis 40.000 lekë per year is 21-100.	40.000 lekë per year
7	Tariffs for the use of accreditation symbol in the laboratories where number of analysis 90.000 lekë per year is over 100.	90.000 lekë per yeart

Tariffs for accreditation of additional analysis: If the number of analysis for which the accreditation is being sought is less then 5, the tariffs are 1000 lekë for each analysis. If the number of analysis for which the accreditation is being sought is more then 5, then the tariffs are 5000 lekë.

*Note: The tariffs for the use of accreditation symbol is an annual tariffs of 5% of annual revenues realized from the accredited body during the year for services rendered to third parties and for which he has been accredited.

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