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Celebrating the jubilee: Accreditation Day and 10th anniversary of creation

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18th June 2008 - Today at the premises of the Accreditation Board of Serbia a ceremony was held on the occasion of the Accreditation Day and celebration of the 10th anniversary of its creation. It was an opportunity to present certificates to newly accredited organisations and to organisations in which surveillance and accreditation renewal had been carried out.

Every year the Accreditation Board of Serbia celebrates 28th June (pursuant to its Statute when the first accreditation was granted in 2000) as Accreditation Day, while for the first time this year the  International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) designated 9th June 2008 as the first International Accreditation Day. Accreditation Day was celebrated this year as a triple jubilee and tenth anniversary of the creation of the ATS.
Biljana Tomić, a Senior Adviser for Legal Issues, presented work results that have been achieved so far by the National Accreditation Body and by way of a brief introduction reminded the present participants about the background information of our Body:

- The Yugoslav Accreditation Body(JUAT), later to become ATS, was founded in 1998 by means of the Act on  Establishment from 1997 as a collegial public administration body within the Federal Ministry for Development, Science and Environment. On 28th June 2000 this collegial body made the first decision about granting an accreditation.

- From 2000 to 2003 the JUAT was a separate organisation, a collegial body apart of  the Ministry, and from June 2003 to June 2006 it was a constitutive part of the Ministry of Internal Economic Affairs of Serbia & Montenegro. Thereafter it changed its name to the Accreditation Board of Serbia & Montenegro.
- By means of the 2006 Act on Establishment enacted by the Government of the Republic of Serbia the Accreditation Board of Serbia (ATS) was founded as a legal entity, independent and not-for-profit organisation, while the Law on Accreditation entered into force on 1st January 2006.
The respective Ministry we cooperate with is the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development. 
- During the previous period the collegial body made the decisions about accreditation, and nowadays the Director enacts the Act on Accreditation Granting. The bodies of the ATS are as follows: Management Board and Director, and soon it will get a Council and Supervisory Board. The founder of the ATS is the Republic of Serbia, whereas the Government of the Republic of Serbia can exercise the rights of its founder.
- So far ATS had accredited more than 300 organisations such as: testing laboratories, calibration laboratories, inspection bodies and certification bodies, and performed reassessments, as well as renewal of accreditations. More than one thousand surveillance assessments have been performed, hundreds of accreditation scopes have been extended, while the number of scope reductions is smaller then that of extensions to scope, several accreditation suspensions, and several accreditation withdrawals.
- So far ATS has only adopted two Statutes, three Regulations on Internal Organisation and Job and Task Systematisation, three editions of the Accreditation Rules, two Charging Policy Documents, and soon the second edition of the Quality Manual will be adopted.
- The ATS became an associate member of the European Cooperation for Accreditation (EA) by signing the Memorandum of Understanding and in 2007 the Cooperation Agreement was signed between the ATS and EA. Our preparatory peer assessment results were positive and we are on the way to finally becoming a member of the European Cooperation for Accreditation.
- The ATS has continuously been working on improving its own quality system with the aim of harmonising with EN 45000 and 17011, and therefore a large number of procedures and guidelines have been adopted, and large numbers of documents, regulations, forms, plans and rules have been revised.
- In the previous period the ATS was working on the development of accreditation scheme for calibration laboratories, and the development of the new scheme for medical laboratories commence. We are ready to start accrediting certification bodies for the certification of food safety management system. We will soon start developing accreditation scheme for EMAS verifiers.
- The Law on Accreditation compels us to participate in the work of European and international accreditation organisations: EA, ILAC and IAF, and therefore we take part in the sessions of the General Assembly of the European Accreditation, Laboratory Committee, Inspection Committee, Certification Committee, Multilateral Agreement Committee and EA Committee for Communications and Publications.
- The ATS cooperates with state and other bodies with the aim of attaining competence and fulfilling obligations of the Republic of Serbia. There have been intensive attempts to promote the importance and role of accreditation system here in Serbia by participating in professional conferences, seminars and round-table discussions; cooperating with the media and technical magazines, and regular up-dating our website.
- All those years the ATS staff have been regularly trained and have been attaining special skills and now they can disseminate their knowledge to others. The ATS participated in CARDS programmes and SCG-Quality Project.
- The ATS is also composed of registered assessors, namely more than 150 lead assessors, technical assessors and experts. For our assessors to attain as high level of information literacy as possible in the field of accreditation requirements and novelties, and also in the field of harmonisation of assessment approach, seminars are organised every year to maintain competency level of assessors. For the last ten years several thousands contracts have been made with assessors to perform assessment activities.
- The ATS is developing an intensive regional cooperation and by now it has signed cooperation agreements with the Hungarian Accreditation Board (NAT), Institute for Accreditation of B&H (BATA), Institute for Accreditation of the Republic of Macedonia (IARM) and Accreditation Body of Montenegro. Implementation of these agreements also implies the exchange of assessors and experts to exchange experiences in accreditation assessment, mutual education of staff, common assessments and inter-laboratory comparisons.
“We hope that we will soon harmonise our legislation with that of the EU, since that will enable accession to the EU and WTO in the near future. We expect that we will have another EA peer assessment next year which will enable us by signing multilateral agreements with the EA members to achieve regional and international recognition of the certificates and reports produced by our laboratories and organisations. This will, by all means, contribute to easier circulation of goods and services, and to the economic development of our country”, emphasised Dr Dejan Krnjaić, the Director of the ATS.

Dr Dejan Krnjaić presented the certificates to the following organisations:

1. Akcionarsko društvo za ispitivanje kvaliteta "Kvalitet" (Joint-stock Company for Quality Testing, “Quality”) - Niš
2. Faculty of Mechanical Engineering - Niš
3. Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Belgrade, CIAH Laboratory
4. Scientific Veterinary Institute “Novi Sad” - Novi Sad
5. Antiplam - Belgrade
6. Institute of Public Health - Valjevo
7. RB Kolubara doo (limited liability company) - Lazarevac
8. BG INSPEKT DOO (limited liability company) - Belgrade
9. El-Eh Garant doo (limited liability company) - Belgrade
10. AD Livnica Kikinda (Foundry Kikinda, joint-stock company) - Kikinda
11. FAM AD Kruševac (joint-stock company) - Kruševac
12. MD PROJEKT INSTITUT doo (limited liability company) - Niš
13. ENERGOPROJEKT - Niskogradnja ad (Roads & Railways, joint-stock company) – Belgrade
14. AD zaštita na radu i zaštita životne sredine “Beograd” (Joint-stock company – Occupational and Environmental Safety “Belgrade”) 

We wish to upgrade and modernise all segments of our work in keeping with our and European regulations and standards so that we can provide as high service quality as possible to our citizens and clients, said Dr Dejan Krnjaić and thanked all the employees of the ATS for their understanding and support provided so far, and, on behalf of the members of the staff, expressed thanks to the colleagues that have been working with the Accreditation Board since its creation, Biljana Tomić, Dragan Badnjar, MSc, and Verica Kovačević, by presenting them with certificates in acknowledgement of their work.


Dr Dejan Krnjaić, Biljana Tomić, and prof. dr Slobodan Petrović


Biljana Tomić introduced the present participants to background information related to the work of the ATS


Verica Kovačević receiving a certificate in acknowledgement of her work on the occasion of 10th anniversary of creation of the ATS 



Dragan Badnjar, MSc, also received a a certificate in acknowledgement of his work



Biljana Tomić with Dr Dejan Krnjaić who presented her with a certificate in acknowledgement of her work, and prof. dr Slobodan Petrović, Chairman of the MB


Present guests in Podgorica stateroom


Anđelković Bratislav, "Kvalitet" Niš, receiving the certificate, while this organisation was presented with the first accreditation certificate on 28th June eight years ago


Spasić Živan, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Niš


Rade Pavlović, “Energoprojekt”