Noble BEE Rating (Pty) Ltd and its employees, volunteers, and contractors understand the importance of impartiality and the consideration of any potential conflict of interest in carrying out its certification activities. Certification of individuals is based on objective evidence obtained by NOBLE through a fair, valid, and reliable assessment, and is not influenced by other interests or other parties.
NOBLE will identify and assess risks in all relationships that may result in a conflict of interest or
pose a threat to impartiality. Threats to impartiality include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Self-interest threats: threats that arise from a person or body acting in its interest to
benefit itself; - Subjectivity threats: threats that arise when personal bias overrules objective evidence;
- Familiarity threats: threats that arise from a person being familiar with or trusting another person, e.g. an examiner or certification body personnel developing a relationship with a candidate that affects the ability to reach an objective judgment;
- Intimidation threats: threats that prevent a certification body or its personnel from acting objectively due to fear of a candidate or other interested party;
- Financial threats: the source of revenue for a certification body can be a threat to impartiality.
The Appeals, Complaints, Impartiality, and Internal Audit Committee is responsible for ensuring that threats to impartiality and conflicts of interest are effectively managed and reviewed regularly. Conflict of interest and objectivity are addressed further through binding agreements to ensure that all activities undertaken throughout the certification process are conducted independently and impartially.
NOBLE aims to inspire confidence in its certification by:
- being impartial.
- employing competent personnel,
- being responsive to complaints,
- providing access to relevant information gathered as per the
- fairness,
- transparency of processes, and
- maintaining confidentiality as per the Verification Agreement