Kisia: Firm to blame for fake ISO award

Former Nairobi town Clerk Philip Kisia now claims the firm that gave the City Council an ISO certification failed to inform its parent company of the correct procedure to be followed.

Mr Kisia, who left office in May, defended the City Council from allegations that it engaged a company that was not accredited to audit quality management systems, to certify the council’s operations as qualitative.

“I think the fault lies with DQS Kenya. When they gave us an interim certificate, it was incumbent to them to then forward the report to DQS Germany to then give us the final certification.

“The failure of the local firm to send the report to Germany caused all this mess and they need to take responsibility,” he said during NTV’s The Trend show on Friday night.

The Council was in April awarded the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) certification for introducing electronic payment systems, adopting Information Communication Technology, efforts to reduce corruption, and dealing with ghost workers — making it the first urban council in East Africa to get such a certification.

At a colorful ceremony at City Hall, local standardisation firm DQS-Kenya, affiliated to DQS-Germany issued the certificate. (READ: Nairobi City Council gets ISO award)

Mr Kisia then told reporters that the achievement resulted from an installation of a quality management system which had improved interaction with customers through listening to their requirements as a way of boosting satisfaction.

However, the Kenya Accreditation Service (Kenas), the body which claims to be the “sole National accreditation body that gives formal recognition that certification bodies (CBs), inspection bodies (IBs) and laboratories are competent to carry out specific conformity assessment tasks” tore into that award.

Earlier this week, Kenas Managing Director Sammy Milgo told journalists that the Council received a fake certificate because the company that licensed the local firm to certify the Council had delinked itself from the process.

“The purported certification that has been awarded to the city council of Nairobi is not genuine. DQS which supervises all its subsidiaries around the world has instructed the city council to withdraw that certificate.”

He further said that due process was not followed in awarding the ISO 9001: 2008 Quality management System (QMS) certification.

In response however, Mr Kisia claimed that Kenas was not the sole endorsing organ in the country.

“They are not the national accrediting body. There are several accrediting bodies, such as bureau VERITAS, SGS and Kebs.

“Kenas is an association of firms which are involved in providing accreditation in Kenya and the firms which accredit ISO are only three.

''Bureau Veritas, SGS and…I think others are linked to international accrediting bodies.”

But Industrialisation PS Karanja Kibicho told the Nation that Kenas is the body the government recognises to issue accreditation.

Accreditation is an endorsement by a third party that the company doing a particular business is capable of delivering the service.

This is not compulsory, although its boosts a company’s credibility.

DQS Germany is said to have withdrawn its licence with DQS Kenya after it emerged the certification had run it murk.

Attempts to get the German firm to comment on this matter went futile even as Mr Kisia insisted that the genesis of the ISO certification scandal was the said company.