Commitment to Impartiality

Top management at HMCA is committed to the safeguarding of impartiality, for this particular reason, we have devised an impartiality policy as per the requirements of the standard ISO/IEC 17021:2011 in order to safeguard the auditing and decision making in the context of the issuance of a Halal certificate. We have rules and regulations that control the implementation and adherence to ensure a fair, robust and high quality of service to be delivered to our customers.

Impartiality Policy

• That we understand the importance of impartiality in carrying out our management system certification activities.
• That we have identified, analyzed the possibilities of conflicts of interest and the threats to impartiality.
• That we safeguard and manage the conflict of interest.
• That we ensure the objectivity of management system activities.

” We shall remain impartial “

HMCA has an independent committee, that oversees the rules and guidance of our impartiality process are implemented and adhered to. Each employee or associate has the responsibility to comply with the process and guidelines for impartiality. Any instance where an employee, associate or customer feels there is a threat to our impartiality, you are welcome to contact our Chief Executive Officer, who has the authority to initiate a full investigation into your inquiry.

Impartiality

We recognize the following statements as threats to our impartiality:

• Self-interest – threats that arise from a person or body acting in their own interest.
• Self-review – threats that arise from a person or body reviewing the work done themselves.
• Familiarity (or trust) – threats that arise from a person or body being too familiar with or trusting of another person instead of seeking audit evidence.
• Intimidation Threats – threats that arise from a person or body having a perception of being coerced openly or secretively, such as a threat to be replaced.

Conflict of Interest

A conflict of interest can be defined as any situation in which an individual or corporation (either private or governmental) is in a position to exploit a professional or official capacity in some way for their personal or corporate benefit. This may be in the form of an associate performing assessment for a party they have close business or personal relationship with. This kind of scenario must be avoided to eradicate any influence of the assessor’s judgment and lack of impartiality.

We recognize the following scenarios as conflicts of interest:

• Auditing a system you have carried out the implementation of.
• Auditing a system of a family member or friend
• Accepting directly or indirectly any kind of personal advantage offered by the organization to be audited

Disclose-able Interests

As employees of HMCA all members of the staff have a duty of fidelity to HMCA under their contracts of employment and signed confidentiality agreements. All members of staff are obliged to give a prime commitment of time and intellectual ability/ energy for the benefit and well-being of HMCA.

Specific responsibilities and activities that constitute this commitment will differ according to specific roles but must be based on an understanding of what is acceptable between the individual member of staff and HMCA.

It is not acceptable for an individual’s actions or decisions made in course of his/her activities to be determined by consideration of personal goals, other than normal aspirations and behaviors related to the promotion or professional development. such behavior calls into question the professional objectivity and ethics of the individual and reflects negatively on HMCA.

This document provides the opportunity to record and concern they may have in relation to the possibilities that a conflict of interest could arise in their own area of network. In official acknowledging any such possibility, the individual is reassured that HMCA is aware of the situation and that appropriate action, if any is needed, will be taken; this is very often all that is required to allay both the individual sense of vulnerability and HMCA’s concern.

This policy is therefore designed to:

• Heighten the awareness of member of the staff about the situation that may generate a conflict of interest:
• Provide the means of members of staff and HMCA to manage potential and real conflict of interest;
• Ensure that activities undertaken are in the best of interest of the staff, HMCA and accreditation as a whole;
• Ensuring that advice to a member of staff is independent of the advancement of personal interest.

Limitation on Outside Professional Activities

HMCA encourages staff to become involved in knowledge and technology transfer activities to benefit not only the staff member’s continual professional development but also HMCA and their registered clients.

However, the knowledge and the technology transfer process can create a potential conflict of interest, particularly when there is an opportunity for personal gains on the part of the member of staff or any agents assisting in the transfer.

Staff must not allow other activities to detract from their obligation to HMCA. a member of staff must not have significant outside managerial responsibilities such as directorship, nor provide and consultancy services to HMCA clients.

A member of the impartiality committee should avoid getting into a position where his\her private interest conflict with HMCA.

Guideline for Policy Implementation

All members of the staff, including must initially certified their compliance with this policy by signing a confidentiality agreement, and update their declaration if appropriate when circumstances change. In signing this agreement each member of staff undertakes to disclose any existing or potential conflict of interest. If a member of staff’s circumstances changes during a year, a revised attachment to the confidentiality agreement shall be completed as soon as possible after the member of staff is aware of the changes in circumstance. The appeal of a decision should be made to the General Manager in writing, who may refer the appeal to the impartiality committee.