In case you want to COMPLAINT, please use this form.
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Go to MANAGEMENT OF APPEALS
ACERTA will only accept and study the claims that are processed through the form available on our website, as it is the only way to guarantee that the information is received by the appropriate persons.
Complaints transmitted orally, for example by telephone or in person, will not be considered official, so this procedure will not be applied. However, the person receiving it should urge the claimant to formulate it in writing using the form.
ACERTA also makes available to the public and staff of the organization a complaint and suggestion form, which can be used to document these unofficial claims, so that they can be known and treated by top management.
Note: Complaints made orally can not be considered official because they do not allow us to show that they have actually been received and that they can compromise the recipients, especially when they are people with a medium or low level of hierarchy.
When a claim is received, it is automatically transferred to the Managing Director, who makes an initial review and determines the persons who must manage it (managers).
The claim manager will verify that the claim corresponds to his scope of competences and that he can treat them with impartiality; in the affirmative case, he will begin to study it according to the following method:
- Clarification of doubts, if any, on the issue that gives rise to the claim and even on the reliability of the information provided by the claimant.
- Communication of acknowledgment of receipt to the claimant. Although this is done automatically when the claims are filed via the web form, the manager must inform the claimant that has taken over the case, within a period not exceeding three days from receipt of the claim.
- Preliminary evaluation and informed decision to accept or reject the claim.
- In case of dismissal of the claim, communication to the interested party justifying the decision, within a period not exceeding ten days.
In case of acceptance:
- Designation of the people in the organization who should help investigate the claim.
- Investigation of possible causes and scope.
- Assessment of the incidence
If rated as a deviation (Non-compliance, observation or comment), the provisions of the Non-Conformities and Corrective Actions Procedure will be applied.
The process of dealing with accepted claims will begin with an investigation of the possible causes, in order to know if there is any element of the quality system or the modes of action of the entity that may have influenced its appearance, and thus be able to take corrective actions, avoid their repetition and, in the case of interruption of the certification, that can be restored as quickly as possible.
Once the investigation is concluded, the claim will be registered in the corresponding database. In this registry the section of investigation of the claim will be completed, stating if there has been a nonconformity and its most probable cause.
Exceptional cases of claims are those coming from Public Administrations, from ENAC or other accreditation bodies, from promoters of the standards evaluated or from other bodies with certain authority over the schemes evaluated by ACERTA. In these cases it will not be necessary to register them as explained, admitting regardless of the format in which they are presented and reporting it immediately to the general management.
If the source of the problem is located in ACERTA, non-compliance is recorded and the process is followed as indicated in the quality procedure of Non-Conformities and Corrective Actions.
If the problem affects the specific evaluation file, ACERTA will study the situation and determine the actions that must be taken based on the severity and importance of the detected incidence, and that can even lead to an extraordinary evaluation or suspension, or cancel the certificate.
In the follow-up or maintenance activities of a certification, it will always be taken into account if there have been any claims that affect that file.
Online form for INTEGRITY COMPLAINTS