The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has said that given recent developments around the global outbreak of COVID-19 and increasing travel restrictions, they have updated the derogation that allows certification bodies unable to conduct on-site audits to either postpone the audit or replace it with desk audits. Source: Timberbiz
Internal auditors of group and multi-site certificates will be given similar options.
FSC is aware that desk audits cannot fully replace on-site audits, but they see this derogation as justified in the current situation. They said that “the priority is to protect the health of staff of certification bodies and certificate holders, and to support global measures to minimize the spread of the virus”.
To mitigate the difference in audit intensity and enable FSC to monitor the situation, they are setting up additional reporting requirements for the CBs.
With the flexible audit options, the aim is to assure certificate holders that they need not be concerned of losing their certification status because auditors and staff are unable to conduct on-site audits in these challenging times.
