HOW TO

In this section we provide technical/practical information that seed sector staff may find useful. The guidelines are simple for technical staff involved in seed production and quality control to follow.

How To No 29: Auditing of a Seed Testing Laboratory
Quality assurance is a process of planning, acting, checking and adjusting. ISTA defines audit as 'the periodic check which a laboratory must perform to ensure that all aspects of its quality system are effective, fully implemented and adhered to by its staff at all levels'.

For a seed testing laboratory to be accredited, it needs to establish a quality system and to keep the accreditation valid, it needs to prove that the system is being implemented and continuously improved. The practical evidence of successful establishment, implementation and improvement of a quality system is the audit report. Thus, obtaining and maintaining the status of accreditation depends on the results of audit reports.

How to audit
According to the Seed Testing Laboratory Accreditation Standards of ISTA, audits must be performed in order to verify the laboratory's testing capability and must address all elements of the quality system.

Auditing starts by setting and communicating the timetable, the component of the system to audit, the list of people to meet and the documents to inspect; being flexible, if necessary, to make changes in the procedures. Using the quality system based on which the laboratory was accredited, the audit checks the performance of the people, facilities and equipment through interviews, verification of test reports, information on calibration of equipment, error surveys, customer complaints and the preventive/corrective actions taken during the period audited. The audit report includes a full record of how, when and what has been inspected and recorded in such a way that, if necessary, it can be repeated by another person. Both positive and negative results should be fully recorded, discussed with the management, timely corrective actions requested and the potential effects of deficiencies discovered should be reported to the clients.

Who performs the audit?
Any accredited laboratory with an established quality system must have an audit schedule or procedure on the basis of which the laboratory management requests the quality manager to plan and ask an independent and qualified person to carry out the audit.

Types of audit
There are two types of audit: internal and external. A qualified person, preferably from a different section within the same laboratory, may carry out internal audits. In the ISTA accreditation standard, such audits must be part of the quality system and are performed at least annually. The formal external ISTA audits form the basis for initial acceptance of the laboratory for accreditation. The audits are subsequently conducted every three years to maintain the status of accreditation. External auditors assigned by ISTA carry out the initial audits and report to the ISTA secretariat. The external auditors consist of a quality system specialist, who leads the mission and look at the completeness and integrity of the system, assisted by a technical auditor to look at the technical details of the different components within the systems.

The result of the audit and the appropriate corrective actions taken thereafter determine whether accreditation status is granted and maintained thereafter for a laboratory. Abdoul Aziz Niane, Seed Unit, ICARDA, P.O. Box 5466, Aleppo, Syria; E-mail: a.niane@CGIAR.ORG