Conflict identification
Relevant financial, professional and personal interests must be disclosed before assignment and reconsidered if circumstances change.
Institutional framework
Impartiality
Controls for independence, competence and conflicts of interest.
Impartiality is a system of controls, not a statement of intent.
Role separation
Advisory services do not promise success and cannot be delivered by the same people who audit or decide the same scope.
Review and recusal
Conflicts are reviewed, controlled or removed. Recusal and reassignment are recorded when independence could reasonably be questioned.
Commercial independence
Fees pay for the assessment process, not for a positive result. Sales targets, client importance and future work are excluded from findings and decision criteria; overdue fees cannot be disguised as a technical nonconformity.
Challenge and accountability
Applicants may challenge a decision through the appeals route and any party may raise an impartiality concern through the complaints route. The review is assigned outside the work being challenged and any public-status correction is traceable.