Case Study

South African Department of Labour addresses market failure of occupational hygiene inspectors through accreditation.

The South African  Department of Labour (DOL) uses accreditation to determine the competence of Approved Inspection Authorities in the occupational hygiene field. The DoL’s Inspectorate was experiencing a market failure in the performance of some of the AIAs it had approved, brought about by the inconsistent and non-standard performance of practitioners.

The DoL and SANAS (South African National Accreditation System) set about determining criteria for accreditation in this field, with the help of technically knowledgeable stakeholders who were invited to form the SANAS Specialist Technical Committee (STC). Once the criteria and scope had been determined, SANAS and the DoL conducted workshops to inform stakeholders about the accreditation process, including information on the standard ISO/IEC 17020.  (South Africa)

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