SPEECH BY THE MINISTER FOR ECONOMIC SERVICES PROF JOSEF BONNICI AT THE OPENING SESSION OF THE SEMINAR ON THE UPGRADING AND ACCREDITATION OF LABORATORIES, ORGANISED BY THE MALTA STANDARDS AUTHORITY, AT METCO OFFICES, SAN GWANN INDUSTRIAL ESTATE

This is the start of a ground-breaking initiative, which the Government is pursuing with the Malta Standards Authority. It is the local initiation of an international trend, indicated as the next evolutionary phase of the nation's quality infrastructure.

The Malta Standards Authority is assigned amongst other functions, with the brief to develop the necessary frameworks to evolve and adopt the requisite legislation for establishing an Accreditation Directorate in the near future. This Directorate will act as the single, Maltese Nationally Recognised Accreditation Body (NRAB).

The operation of this Directorate will be based on existing European and International standards. The Malta Standards Authority is laying the foundations of this Accreditation Directorate and has sought advice from Dr Perissi, Chairman of the Italian Accreditation Body, in the drafting of the Legal Notice which contemplates the setting up of the Directorate. The legislation is due to come into force in January 2002.

Accreditation is undoubtedly the best tool to establish the all-important criteria of mutual confidence and abidance to guidelines established by MSA ISO/IEC 17025 and MSA EN 45000 provide the framework of necessary standards.

The operative role of accreditation in a modern society is to enhance public confidence by formally recognising competent independent evaluators. The Directorate will be responsible for providing impartial assessment, together with recognition of competence of local assurance mechanisms. The Accreditation body contributes in building the confidence of accredited bodies by regularly assessing their competence, validating their operational independence and assuring impartiality in the assessment conducted by the same bodies. Malta intends to comply with this modus operandi.

Accreditation will help improve the standing of good laboratory practitioners and encourage the amelioration of all practising laboratories. The guidelines for Good Laboratory Practice feature high on an accreditation assessment checklist thereby eliminating the notion that one is mutually exclusive of the other. Manning levels, training and technical competence would be scrutinised in depth by the accreditation body. The process of natural selection will then prevail.

The direct beneficiaries from the formation of the National Accreditation Body will be its direct customers that may be laboratories, inspection and certification bodies, and ultimately the product purchaser.

It is important that locally tested products be accepted internationally with the exclusion for the need of additional repetitive tests. Accreditation of local laboratories will work to safeguard against incurring these superfluous costs, an obvious advantage for our industries. The gaining of international mutual confidence in the results of local testing is the lynch pin in achieving cost effectiveness.

Through its links with the European co-operation for Accreditation (EA) the Accreditation Directorate would be in a position to sign multilateral agreements (EA MLA's), thereby facilitating the movement of products and services in the single market.

The upgrading and accreditation of local laboratory facilities will be an important development in the end customer's availability of informed choices and underpins the confidence parameter in the supplier, purchaser chain.

We must reiterate our goals of placing all the necessary systems to ensure transparency and objective evaluation at the service of all consumers.