ILAC News 38

EA MLA signatory–ILAC MRA signatory–5thbirthday of HAA!This year the Croatian AccreditationAgency (HAA) has plenty reasons forcelebration! One of the greatest successes ofHAA, in the first part of 2010, was becominga signatory to the multilateral agreementwith EA for all accreditation schemes(calibration laboratories, testing and medicallaboratories, inspection bodies, certificationbodies for QMS, EMS, certification ofproducts and certification of personnel). HAAwas, in a demanding three year evaluationprocedure, assessed by EA as a competentand confident institution.HAA submitted an application to sign theEA MLA on 1 March 2007. The pre-peerevaluation of HAA was undertaken in June2008 and the full evaluation was performedin July and November 2009. Finally, on29 April 2010 HAA signed the EA MLA.Following this, HAA submitted applicationto ILAC and became an ILAC full memberand signed the ILAC MRA. This greatachievement of HAA is excellently timedto match with the 5th anniversary of HAAworking independently.The beginning of an accreditation servicein Croatia started, much earlier however, in1996. At that time the accreditation servicewas organized within the State Office forStandardization and Metrology (DZNM-NSO). HAA was established on 1 July 2005as a result of a re-organization of the DZNM.• the value of accreditation (recognitionand position of accredited bodies in themarket and increase of CAB’s activities/services after accreditation);• financial impact of accreditation (increasein CAB’s income after accreditation,increase in the number of supply/demandfor services after accreditation);• the main reason for application foraccreditation (legal stipulations or qualityimprovements);• the strong and weak points of HAA work;and• HAA work in 2009 in comparison withprevious years.HAA conducts this kind of survey every3 years as it is an important tool foridentifying improvements in the HAAmanagement system. We have informed ourHAA in numbers - 5 years of HAA independent workclients about the results of the survey andthis information is available from the HAAwebsite www.akreditacija.hrTo gather feedback from the users ofaccredited services, HAA in cooperation withthe Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK),conducted the Survey on accreditationawareness and implementation of qualitysystems in practice among Croatianeconomic operators (sample of 20 000companies). The survey was launched inApril 2010 and was the first time such acomprehensive survey in this area wasconducted in Croatia. The main points of thesurvey were related to:• the company’s data (number ofemployees/size of company, sector ofoperation);continued next pageTo seek feedback from accredited bodiesand users of their services, HAA launchedtwo comprehensive surveys. In February2010 HAA conducted a survey on Clients’Satisfaction of HAA services. The survey wasforwarded to all the accredited conformityassessment bodies with the questions relatedto:• the application for accreditation (clarityof application documentation, availabilityof information about accreditation beforethe CAB’s application for accreditationand the ease of completing applicationdocuments);• the accreditation service (on siteassessment, price, duration ofaccreditation process);• the HAA staff (availability, kindness,professionalism, quality of informationgiven by HAA staff);Number of accredited bodies in Croatia by years (status 2010-06-30)108Testing laboratories HRN EN ISO/IEC 17025Calibration laboratories HRN EN ISO/IEC 17025Medical laboratories HRN EN ISO 15189Certification of products HRN EN 45011QMS Certification HRN EN ISO/IEC 1702112EMS Certification HRN EN ISO/IEC 170214Certification of personnel HRN EN ISO/IEC 170241439Inspection HRN EN ISO/IEC 170202 1 6Number of accredited bodies in Croatia according to the accreditation schemes (status 2010-06-30)ILAC News | Accreditation25