Nepal Accreditation Foundation (NAF)

1. Objective and Scope of Application

This authoritative document establishes the stringent accreditation criteria that Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs) must fulfill to secure and maintain accreditation from the Nepal Accreditation Foundation (NAF) for performing validation and verification activities. This scheme is directly predicated upon the international standard ISO/IEC 17029:2019. The successful execution of this scheme guarantees that statements issued by accredited VVBs regarding greenhouse gas declarations, environmental sustainability metrics, and specialized industrial claims possess unquestionable reliability, thereby facilitating domestic market trust and seamless cross-border trade integration.

2. Normative References and Regulatory Framework

The operational framework delineated herein is inextricably linked to the following normative documents. For dated references, strictly the cited edition applies.

• ISO/IEC 17029:2019 – Conformity assessment — General principles and requirements for validation and verification bodies.
• ISO/IEC 17011:2017 – Conformity assessment — Requirements for accreditation bodies accrediting CABs.
• ISO 14065:2020 – General principles and requirements for bodies validating and verifying environmental information (mandated for GHG scopes).
• NAF-GOV-01 – NAF Comprehensive Quality Manual.
• NAF-MGT-COMP-01 – Monitoring of Accredited CAB Compliance Policy.

3. Fundamental Principles of Assessment (Clause 4)

Applicant and accredited VVBs shall construct their entire operational ethos upon fundamental principles of conformity assessment, encompassing strict impartiality, verifiable competence, assumed responsibility, operational openness, absolute confidentiality, and rapid responsiveness to stakeholder complaints. The VVB must perpetually maintain the conceptual separation between temporal assessment orientations:

• Validation Methodology: The prospective assessment of claims regarding intended future utilization or projected outcomes. The objective is to scientifically confirm the plausibility of a proposed model or assertion.
• Verification Methodology: The retrospective assessment of claims regarding historical events or definitively obtained results. The objective is to analytically confirm the factual truthfulness of reported data.

4. General Structural and Legal Requirements (Clause 5 & 6)

4.1 Impartiality Safeguards

Validation and verification engagements shall be executed with uncompromising impartiality. The VVB is mandated to ratify a formal Impartiality Policy and implement a dynamic risk register to continuously identify, assess, and mitigate threats to impartiality arising from corporate relationships, financial pressures, or consultancy overlaps. Where a threat is identified, the VVB must present empirical evidence demonstrating how the risk is eliminated or neutralized to an acceptable threshold.

4.2 Legal Accountability and Liability

The VVB must be constituted as a legally identifiable entity, or a clearly defined division within a legal entity, capable of assuming full legal responsibility for all validation and verification statements issued. The VVB must map its organizational hierarchy, definitively identifying the top management echelon holding ultimate authority for policy development, financial oversight, and the endorsement of conformity statements. An operational control plan is mandatory for all activities executed by subsidiary entities or franchised operations.

5. Resource Management and Competence Architecture (Clause 7)

5.1 Personnel Competency Benchmarks

The VVB must guarantee that all active personnel—including lead validators, technical verifiers, independent documentation reviewers, and specialized support staff—possess the rigorous technical competence demanded by each specific validation/verification program sector. The VVB must engineer a formalized process for selecting, training, formally authorizing, and continuously monitoring personnel, maintaining exhaustive evidence of qualifications, ongoing training effectiveness, and calibration periodicity.

6. Process Execution Requirements (Clause 9)

The lifecycle of validation and verification activities must adhere to a highly structured, risk-based methodology:

• Pre-engagement Scrutiny: A mandatory review of the client’s request to definitively ascertain that the VVB possesses the specific sectoral competence and required resources prior to contract acceptance.
• Strategic Planning: The formulation of a comprehensive evidence-gathering plan, heavily influenced by sector-specific risk assessments and historical data volatility.
• Execution and Evidence Accumulation: Field or remote assessments executed to collect sufficient, objective, and verifiable evidence.
• Independent Technical Review: An absolute firewall must exist wherein the final review of the validation/verification data is conducted by authorized personnel who were entirely excluded from the execution phase.
• Decision Authorization: The issuance of the formal conformity statement, which must unequivocally specify the level of assurance provided to stakeholders.
• Post-Issuance Discovery: The VVB must maintain documented protocols for managing facts discovered after the issuance of a statement that materially affect the truthfulness of the verified claim, including procedures for statement withdrawal.

7. Management System Integration (Clause 11)

The VVB is required to deploy a sophisticated management system capable of sustaining the consistent achievement of ISO/IEC 17029 requirements. The VVB may select:

• Option A: A bespoke management system addressing core requirements (management review, internal auditing, systemic corrective actions, and document control).
• Option B: A management system constructed and maintained in strict accordance with the requirements of ISO 9001, provided it seamlessly supports the specific operational demands of validation and verification activities.