ACCREDITATION OF LABORATORIES IN PNG A CONCERN- 2023
The Testing Infrastructure in any economy is the fundamental point of upholding final quality checks of any Conformity Assessment Scheme Value Chain, the Executive Manager for Accreditation Division Mr Christopher Mosoro said.
“PNG as a sovereign nation is no exception to this fact of the matter,” he added.
“The PNG Laboratory Accreditation Scheme (PNGLAS), under NISIT, has seen a lot of struggles in testing laboratories trying to comply to ISO/IEC 17025:2017 standard to be accredited as competent testing and calibration laboratories to produce reliable test results.
“It is a concern to see Public Testing Laboratories, where majority of MSME, government and public rely on, having a downward trend and are not able to produce a trusted Statement of Conformity on their testing materials due to of lack of accreditation.
“Based on PNGLAS Laboratory Assessment Reports, one of the important issues is Management Commitment.
“Laboratories that do not have management commitment, will not see the importance of quality of testing in its own organisation.
“This means having a clear policy that is signed by the top management with commitment and declaration to provide full resources for accreditation and maintaining.
“The implementation of this commitment policy is providing an appropriate budget to achieve and maintain laboratory accreditation.
“The budget components must be based on the requirements/activities of ISO/IEC 17025:2017 and the Testing Laboratory’s own scope of accreditation. Failure to provide such a budget will see lack of commitment to fund lab assessments, surveillance, advisory visits, training of staff, calibration of lab equipment, validation of test methods, taking part in proficiency testing and all other requirements of ISO/IEC 17025:2017 that enable accreditation from PNGLAS.
“Management commitment must allow regular management reviews and improve communication between its administrative and technical staff that all matters uphold its accreditation. Such reviews must be attended by top management and those affected in operations as a re-enforcement of the Testing Laboratory Management Commitment Policy or Statement.
“PNGLAS has a number of Testing Laboratories in PNG with less conditions raised in their laboratory assessment reports and believe strongly in Management Commitment which compels other requirements of ISO/IEC 17025:2017 to flow seamlessly,” Mr Mosoro said.
