Government bodies and regulators are constantly called upon to make decisions related to protecting the health and welfare of consumers and the public, protecting the environment, developing new regulations and requirements, measuring compliance with regulatory and legal requirements, and allocating resources, both technical and financial.  Regulators tap laboratories in carrying out testing, inspection, measurement or calibration. Obtaining data and test results from accredited laboratories gives them the confidence in making informed decisions about these public policies.

When a laboratory is accredited by a recognized accreditation body, it has demonstrated that a prescribed level of technical competence to perform specific types of testing, measurement or calibration activities has been achieved. Being accredited involves being reviewed and inspected to ensure you are doing what you say you are doing. It means following various standards, and working in such a way that the results are accurate, traceable and can be replicated, which are critical in government decision making that affects public safety and health and environmental protection.

Using an accredited laboratory leads to increased public confidence in government and regulators actions and policies based on sound data used to establish baselines for key analyses and decisions. Because accreditation is a recognizable mark of approval, it eliminates the need for redundant reviews and improves the efficiency of the assessment process which may reduce costs.

Additionally, government procurement will be more efficient when winning suppliers of goods and services use an accredited laboratory. Procuring government agencies are more confident that purchases received from these suppliers are safe and reliable; costs associated with laboratory problems, including re-testing, re-sampling, and lost time, are minimized; and false positives and negatives, which can directly affect compliance with regulations, are also minimized.

Moreover using accredited laboratories facilitates trade and economic growth. The accreditation process relies on a uniform approach to determine laboratory competence, an approach that has been accepted and implemented across many borders; which is in fact, a worldwide industry practice. Because of internationally accepted testing and measurement practices, data generated by accredited laboratories may lead to readily accepted goods and services exported to overseas markets. Non-tariff barriers like retesting are minimized which facilitates and encourages more trade flows.

Governments in most economies have been widely embracing accreditation which has become mandatory in many regulated areas to help governments meet their responsibilities and safeguarding the public.

For example, in the Asia-Pacific region, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) endorses accreditation with the Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (APLAC) which is recognized as an APEC Specialized Regional Body. Accreditation is now used to underpin the conformity assessment component of APEC agreements.

Similarly, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations {ASEAN) with its ten member states has included accreditation in the ASEAN Sectoral Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) for electrical and electronic equipment as a means to meet the mandatory requirements of each member and to facilitate the implementation of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA).

The mainstream acceptance of accreditation by pan-regional bodies, and domestic regulators within individual governments, also helps member governments of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to meet their responsibilities in reducing Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement {TBT Agreement), and complying with the requirements of the Sanitary and Phyto Sanitary Agreement (SPS Agreement).

With the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) mission to enable businesses and empower the consumers, it created the Philippine Accreditation Bureau (PAB) to help businesses and protect consumers by providing accreditation to organizations that conducts certification, inspection, testing and calibration services.

The DTI through PAB is a signatory member to the Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) and Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MLA) of the Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (APLAC), Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (PAC), International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation and International Accreditation Forum (IAF). The DTI-PAB is also an active member of the ASEAN Consultative Committee on Standards and Quality Working Group 2 on Conformity Assessment.

Philippine government and regulatory agencies can have confidence in the results and measurements produced by the certification body, inspection body, testing laboratory and calibration laboratory by ensuring that they choose laboratories and bodies accredited by the DTI-PAB.

To know more about the accreditation services of the DTI-PAB, please visit their website at www.pabaccreditation.dti.gov.ph or contact DTI-PAB at +632 751-03841oc. 4707, you may also send an e-mail at pab@dti.gov.ph.

Source: www.ilac.org