Integrity assessments explained

There are several types of integrity assessments: CB office and producer assessments, assessments against the GLOBALG.A.P. Chain of Custody (CoC) standard, and reviews of add-on checklists uploaded to the GLOBALG.A.P. IT systems.

1. The offices and producers to be assessed are selected primarily based on risk assessments and the follow-up of sanctions or complaints. However, there is always a percentage of producer assessments where the sample is selected randomly. In general, CB offices are assessed approximately every three years.
2. After the assessments, reports are reviewed centrally by the GLOBALG.A.P. Secretariat. The assessments are then classified according to the CB’s performance on a scale of one (unacceptable performance) to five (excellent performance).
3. Based on the results of one or more assessment reports, or on failure to demonstrate improvement from previous assessments, the GLOBALG.A.P. Secretariat forwards the information to the Integrity Surveillance Committee.
4. The Integrity Surveillance Committee then decides on CB sanctions. Committee members, who are industry experts, are appointed by the Advisory Board but work independently and meet at least twice a year. To ensure an impartial evaluation, the integrity assessment reports are anonymized before delivery to the Integrity Surveillance Committee (i.e., they do not include identifiable information such as the producer’s name, GGN, country, CB name, etc.).
5. After Integrity Surveillance Committee meetings, CBs are informed about their proposed sanctions and are given the opportunity to appeal within 14 days of notification.