United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office General Government Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1999-09-24 monographic deposited born digital 44 p. GA 1.13:GGD-99-170 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GGD-99-170 P0b002ee18038d14b f:gg99170 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-GGD-99-170 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GGD-99-170 GGD-99-170 Procurement Product evaluation Reporting requirements Private sector practices Institution accreditation Standards and standardization Federal procurement OSHA Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory Program NMFS Voluntary Seafood Inspection Program FDA Mammography Certification Program Letter Report GGD Q9001

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed federal agencies' certification requirements for goods and services, focusing on: (1) the extent and variety of certification activities in the federal government; (2) the extent to which there are policies, procedures, or guidance governing those activities, either governmentwide or within selected agencies; and (3) an agency certification procedure that could serve as an example or best practice for other agencies.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) federal agencies engage in a large number and wide variety of certification-related activities; (2) the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) publishes directories listing more than 200 federal government procurement and regulatory programs in which agencies provide or require certification, accreditation, listing, or registration; (3) these directories provide only a partial inventory of agencies' activities because they focus primarily on certifications of products and services and they do not cover individual procurement actions in which agencies require particular certifications; (4) certification activities also vary across multiple dimensions, including the origin of the requirements, their targets, which entities do the certifying, whether the certifications are mandatory or voluntary, and the extent to which there is reciprocity with or recognition of other certifications or requirements; (5) specific guidance regarding the selection of specific requirements or certifying organizations is limited; (6) federal procurement law imposes some limits on agencies' use of certification requirements, restricting the use of certification requirements to instances in which the requirements are specifically imposed by law or the agencies show a particular need and, if possible, allow for alternatives; (7) some agencies have established certification procedures and criteria for individual programs, and agency officials identified some related policies, procedures and guidance that can affect their certification activities; (8) there is no governmentwide guidance, or agencywide guidance in the five agencies that GAO reviewed, regarding all types of certification requirements; (9) NIST has prepared draft guidance on conformity assessment activities, including certification, which it plans to issue for public comment; (10) one best practice that GAO has supported in the regulatory arena, transparency of decisionmaking, also appears applicable to certification requirements, particularly given the complexity and diversity of certification activities and organizations; (11) in the certification actions that GAO examined, the criteria that the agencies used to establish a particular requirement or select a particular certifying organization were very clear in some instances but not clear in others; (12) other agencies' certification actions were not as transparent and certification bodies that were not selected raised questions about the criteria that agencies used; and (13) in each of those cases, agency officials were able to provide the rationale for their actions. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GGD-99-170/html/GAOREPORTS-GGD-99-170.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GGD-99-170/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GGD-99-170.pdf GAO/GGD-99-170 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GGD-99-170 Letter Report GAO/GGD-99-170; Certification Requirements: New Guidance Should Encourage; Procurement Product evaluation Reporting requirements Private sector practices Institution accreditation Standards and standardization Federal procurement OSHA Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory Program NMFS Voluntary Seafood Inspection Program FDA Mammography Certification Program Title 41 Section 425(c) 41 U.S.C. 425(c)