Acredit with ONAC

What is accreditation?

Organismo Nacional de Acreditacion de Colombia – ONAC- (Colombia´s National Accreditation Body), as a third-party organization, declares that the CABs that claim to be competent, effectively perform the activities covered in the accredited scope, according to requirements established in international standards in order to ensure confidence in the goods and services available in the market.   

Accreditation is an activity that, together with metrology and standardization, plays a fundamental role in protecting the interests of consumers in terms of safety and quality.

If you want to start the accreditation process with ONAC please take in account the following elements:
  • Accreditation process with ONAC is only available in SPANISH language.
  • ONAC as part of Mutual and Multilateral Recognition Agreements provided by the international cooperations of accreditation as, the Inter-American Accreditation Cooperation – IAAC, the International Accreditation Forum IAF and International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation – ILAC must act in compliance to Cross-Frontier Accreditation Principles for Cooperation, that’s why we invite you to:
    • Enquire if there is a national Accreditation Body – AB in your country.
    • If actually there is a national Accreditation Body take in account that the accreditation process with your national AB could be easier due to local factors and conditions.
    • Verify if the national AB is part of Recognition Agreements
    • Keep in mind that if you decide to start accreditation process with ONAC, your national AB could be involved in the accreditation assessments

Find out more about ONAC Accreditation Process with Super Acredita:

Video Playlist
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EP 6 "ACREDÍTATE CON ONAC I PARTE " - INFÓRMATE CON SÚPER ACREDITA
EP 6 "ACREDÍTATE CON ONAC I PARTE " - INFÓRMATE CON SÚPER ACREDITA
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EP 7 "ACREDÍTATE CON ONAC II PARTE" - INFÓRMATE CON SÚPER ACREDITA
EP 7 "ACREDÍTATE CON ONAC II PARTE" - INFÓRMATE CON SÚPER ACREDITA
02:17
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EP 8 ACREDÍTATE CON ONAC III PARTE - INFÓRMATE CON SÚPER ACREDITA
EP 8 ACREDÍTATE CON ONAC III PARTE - INFÓRMATE CON SÚPER ACREDITA
02:24

If you are already accredited and wish to apply for an accreditation request or accreditation extensión or extension, click on the following button.

Benefits of accreditation

Accreditation provides benefits not only to Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs), but also to regulators, businessmen and consumers, since it promotes safety, quality, optimization of processes and resources; therefore, strengthening the trust that users place in the services provided by the CABs. Some of the main benefits that can be obtained by accredited organizations and persons are:
Accredited conformity assessment is recognized by regulators, control authorities, and buyers in national and international markets, under the premise that a process, system or item is tested only once and accepted worldwide. Accreditation has become an element of confidence, demanded more frequently when requesting conformity assessment services, both in the public and private sectors.
Accreditation enables Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs) to assure their clients that the accredited testing, calibration, inspection or certification services they offer contribute significantly to reducing the risks associated with the quality or safety of the goods or services subject to assessment.
Accreditation allows access to foreign markets, based on the results of conformity assessment issued by accredited CABs, by accreditation bodies that have signed multilateral recognition agreements, which are accepted throughout the world.
Accredited CABs demonstrate their competence through compliance with globally accepted requirements aligned with conformity assessment best practices.
Accredited CABs contribute to the transfer of knowledge, bringing international standards and practices to their clients as a source of independent and impartial advice.
The results issued by accredited CABs facilitate legal actions and processes by providing suitable and reliable results.
Play Video
GET INFORMED WITH SUPER ACREDITA – BENEFITS OF ONAC ACCREDITATION

Who can be accredited?

Anybody that performs conformity assessment activities (such as tests, controls, measurements, analyses, inspections, technical audits, verifications, etc.) is a candidate for accreditation by ONAC, regardless of its legal nature, its public or private character, or its size, if it performs other activities or if it assessment activity is a service provided by the organization to its customers, or is performed as part of its internal processes (quality controls, incoming materials inspections, supplier control, etc.)

What is your Accreditation Scheme?

If your organization performs one or more conformity assessment activities such as those mentioned above, identify the accreditation scheme of your interest by clicking on each of the icons to learn about the objective and scope of each of the services available in ONAC’s accreditation portfolio.

Accreditation Route

If you have already identified the accreditation scheme of your interest, most likely you have already understood the basic concepts. Now, you can start your accreditation process. To learn more, click on the tabs below:

Play Video
GET INFORMED WITH SUPER ACREDITA – E6 “GET ACCREDITED WITH ONAC I PART”
Play Video
GET INFORMED WITH SUPER ACREDITA – E7 “GET ACCREDITED WITH ONAC II PART”
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FIND OUT MORE WITH SUPER ACREDITA – GET ACCREDITED WITH ONAC III PART – E8

Before Starting

It is important that prior to applying to the accreditation process, the applicant knows the requirements and documents that must be taken into account in each of the stages. The documents have been classified into:

General Documents: Applicable to all accreditation schemes, where the conditions from the submission of the application to the maintenance and renewal of the accreditation are defined, these document become part of the contractual relationship with ONAC.

Accreditation criteria: Requirements to be fulfilled by the applicant wishing to be accredited under the conformity assessment scheme and which are assessed to determine the competence of the body. example ISO/IEC 17020 requirements for bodies performing inspections.

Evaluation criteria: Additional or complementary documents to the accreditation standard, for some specific scopes, that the applicant must comply with and are subject to evaluation by ONAC to determine its competence as a Conformity Assessment Body. For each accreditation scheme the accreditation criteria, evaluation criteria and normative documents may vary, therefore we invite you to consult the scheme in which you are interested for more detailed information.

 

Initial Registration
Register in SIPSO, which will be the platform you will use to interact with ONAC during the accreditation process. Enter all the information regarding the organization you are going to accredit.
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Initial Registration
Submit your application
Register your application for accreditation with each of the requested requirements
2
Submit your application
Review of your application
We will review your application and if necessary, you will have to make adjustments.

The purpose of this stage is to verify that the requested scope can be accredited under the scheme of your interest, and that the documents provided by the CAB are suitable to start the assessment.

In case the scheme coordinator finds that is necessary clarification regarding the documents provided, or on the other hand, the documents provided by the OEC are not complete to start the assessment, the CAB must attend it within 10 working days (this process could be carried out 2 times).
3
Review of your application
Commercial proposal
Once your request is approved, we will provide a quote for the service and you will be able to arrange payment for the assessment.
4
Commercial proposal
Notification and acceptance of schedule
We will notify you of your agency's evaluation schedule and assessment team, which you must either accept or refuse.
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Notification and acceptance of schedule
Assessment
Our assesment team will perform stage 1 and stage 2, plan proposal review, and complementary assesment, if applicable.
6
Assessment
Decision
Review and Attestation
We will review the final report that contains the results of the assessment stages, appoint and execute and Accreditation Committee.
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Decision
Closing of the Accreditation Process
The process will end with the signing of contracts, generation of accreditation certificates, publication on the website and updating of our official accreditation directory.
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Closing of the Accreditation Process

Commercial proposal

The submission of the commercial proposal is made when ONAC has carried out the analysis of the application and has confirmed that the CAB has provided all the information required in the application form. However, the Sectoral Coordinator for your application’s accreditation scheme may request further information and generate the appropriate quotation for the organization.

The commercial proposal is projected by calculating the required assessment days, which are established according to the requested scope, the sites for which accreditation is requested, and the number of CAB personnel, among others. In addition, these days are distributed in the following evaluation steps:

Stage 1 – Documentary assessment
Stage 2 – On-site assessment

The initial quotation does not include:

  • Travel time costs of the members of the evaluation team (due to geographic location of the CAB or logistical availability of the CAB)
  • Additional days to comply with the sampling plan (according to the sites selected to perform conformity assessment testing)
  • Additional days to assess facilities with key unreported activities

Travel, lodging, and maintenance of the evaluation team.

Service programming

With the scheduling of the service, the dates of execution of the evaluation in its different stages are informed according to that established in the quotation.

With the communication from the programming area, ONAC informs the CAB of the evaluation team members’ names and the organization to which they belong, attaching their resumes, with which you can verify their profile and experience. In this way, the CAB may raise the objections it deems pertinent with respect to the members of the Evaluation team.

Finally, we invite you to consult here the Programming Procedure for Evaluation Services V.5, PR-3.1-01.

Learn in a practical and simple way, the first and second part of the video explaining the V5 Evaluation Services Programming Procedure

Assesment Stages

The initial stage corresponds to a document review that is normally carried out before the on-site assessment.

The on-site assessment has the purpose of getting to know the CAB facilities, personnel, and perform the witnessing according to the requested scope.

In this stage, the assessment of the competence of the CAB in the development of the conformity assessment activities requested in the scope of accreditation is performed, including all the operations of the body, the competence of the personnel, the validity of the conformity assessment methodology, and the results.

In case non-conformity findings are identified, the CAB should send a plan proposal to correct those findings. The assesment team should review y approve the plan. Once the plan is approved, ONAC will schedule a complementary assessment to asses the implementation of the activities proposed.

Note: non-conformity findings and not approval of the plan may be appealed within next 5 working days

Decision

The decision on whether or not to grant accreditation is made by the Accreditation Committee, who evaluate and analyze the information generated during the evaluation stages and other available information to confirm whether or not the accreditation requirements have been met.

In the event that the CAB does not agree with the decision made by the Accreditation Committee, it may file a justified appeal in writing, which will be dealt with in accordance with the provisions of the Procedure for Handling Appeals, P-DEC-02.

Confirm accreditation status

Verify the status of an accreditation by typing the accreditation code below:

Remember, accreditation process with ONAC is only available in SPANISH language