VCA BEE
BEE VERIFICATION AGENCY

• VCA shall demonstrate commitment to impartiality in the BEE Verification activities especially through its top management structures.
• VCA shall ensure that activities of other bodies do not affect the confidentiality, objectivity and impartiality of its activities.
• VCA shall be impartial, and all its staff and associates shall act in an impartial manner.
• VCA recognizes that the source of revenue is the client paying for its service and that this is a potential threat to impartiality. In order to obtain and maintain confidence, VCA shall always demonstrate that its decisions are based on objective evidence and that its decisions are not improperly influenced by other interests or by other parties.
• VCA shall avoid any situation that would create a conflict of interest arising from the activity of any other body. All VCA personnel, either internal or external, or committees, which could influence the verification activities, shall act impartially and shall not allow commercial, financial or other pressures to compromise impartiality.
• VCA shall require personnel, internal and external, to declare any situation known to them that may present them or VCA with a conflict of interest. VCA shall use this information as input to identifying threats to impartiality raised by the activities of such personnel or by the organisations that employ them and shall not use such personnel, internal or external, unless they can demonstrate that there is no conflict of interest.
• If a member of the verification team, or their immediate family member, has a direct financial interest, or a material indirect financial interest, in the client, the self-interest threat created would be so significant the only safeguards available to eliminate the threat or reduce it to an acceptable level would be to:
a. Dispose of the direct financial interest prior to the individual becoming a member of the verification team;
b. Dispose of the indirect financial interest in total or dispose of a sufficient amount of it so that the remaining interest is no longer material prior to the individual becoming a member of the verification team; or c. Remove the member of the verification team from the verification engagement.

COMPLAINTS & APPEALS

PURPOSE AND SCOPE

The purpose and intention of this section is to define how appeals, complaints and disputes are handled by VCA Verifications. This document is applicable to VCA Verifications personnel, who are required to handle appeals & complaints and the appellant or complainant.

Procedure:
1. All complaints shall be received by VCA Verifications and logged in Complaint request form VCAC001 and simultaneously entered into Complaints Register VCACR001.
2. Complaints received by VCA Verifications personnel shall be routed to the relevant authorized personnel, (those individuals independent from the actual verification audit) to investigate and report on the appeal/complaint.
3. All complaints or appeals shall be tracked by its unique AP02-00 reference number.
4. The responsible personnel shall ensure that the complaint is investigated in such a manner as to obtain all the facts relevant to the complaint by making use of the Root Cause Analysis procedure.
5. The responsible personnel shall use fair judgment and be required to communicate with the complainant/appellant on the progress of the complaint until the matter has been fully resolved.
6. The complainant /appellant shall be notified in writing within 15 days upon the outcome and conclusion of the appeal or complaint.
7. If the appeal/complaint is successfully resolved the entity shall be Closed Out in the Complaints, Corrective, Preventative Action Register and Report.
8. If VCA Verifications fails to resolve the complaint, the complaint shall be regarded as a dispute.
9. Disputes are all disagreements that cannot be handled through VCAs Complaints Procedure and shall require an Independent Expert or the services of an external Arbitrator. Thus the dispute shall be handled in accordance with the rules applicable by the external arbitrator.

APPEALS
1. Appeals are registered as a result of an adverse decision by VCA Verifications or a refusal to continue with Bee Verification Audit suspension or withdrawal of Verification services or an unfavourable resolution of a complaint.
2. The appellant shall be required to write a letter via fax, email or post directed to VCA Verifications within 7 days.
3. The Appeal shall be logged in the Appeals request form VCAAP001 and simultaneously in APPEALS register VCAAR001 using AP01-00 reference number as tracking number.
4. The authorized personnel of VCA Verifications (those employees who were not involved in the verification audit) shall investigate the appeal and request a meeting with the Appellant.
5. The authorized personnel shall make recommendations with the Appellant to address the Appeal and establish solutions.
6. The authorized personnel shall inform the Appellant in writing of the steps that shall be taken to resolve the Appeal. A copy of the letter shall be kept on file.
7. The authorized personnel shall communicate its final decision to the appellant within 15 days.
8. VCA shall take follow –up action if required and record all relevant details of the appeal and file all documents in the Customer File.
If the appeal and complaint is not resolved by mutual understanding, the matter could be referred to an external source for mediation or arbitration. All relevant terms, conditions and procedures of the external body shall become applicable.
For further query, mail us at: info@vca-bee.co.za or enquiries@vca-bee.co.za