How to check the accreditation of the organization that issued the certificate or permit?
How to check the accreditation of the organization that issued the certificate or test report. We analyze the NAAU register, the scope of accreditation, and the main criteria for checking compliance documents.
How to check the accreditation of the organization that issued the certificate or permit?
A certificate, test report, conclusion, or other document of compliance is often perceived as the final confirmation of product quality and safety.
But the mere fact of the document's existence does not yet answer the main question: who exactly issued it and did this body have the right to conduct the appropriate assessment?
This is especially important for building materials, finishing panels, structures and other products. The document may look official, contain a number, date, stamps and references to standards. However, it is necessary to check whether the conformity assessment body has the appropriate accreditation, whether it covers the required type of product and whether the document was issued within its competence.
Ukrainian legislation defines a conformity assessment body as an organization or its structural unit that carries out conformity assessment activities, including testing, certification and inspection. A document of conformity may be a declaration, protocol, report, conclusion, certificate, or other document confirming compliance with certain requirements.
Therefore, it is not only the document itself that needs to be checked. It is also necessary to check the organization that issued it .
What is accreditation of a conformity assessment body?
Accreditation is the official confirmation of the competence of a conformity assessment body to perform certain tasks.
Simply put, accreditation answers the questions:
Does this organization have the necessary competence and system of work to carry out such testing, certification or inspection?
At the same time, accreditation is not an unlimited permission to carry out any work.
The area of accreditation is important.
The legislation defines the "scope of designation" as a list of conformity assessment procedures and types of products for which the body is designated to perform the relevant work.
That is why the presence of an accreditation certificate does not mean that the body can certify any product.
Who carries out accreditation in Ukraine?
In Ukraine, the national accreditation body is the National Accreditation Agency of Ukraine - NAAU .
UNAU forms and maintains a register of accredited conformity assessment bodies.
As of September 4, 2026, the NAAU register contains 2,246 accreditation certificates, of which 1,227 are valid. The register includes, in particular, testing and calibration laboratories, product certification bodies, inspection bodies, and management system certification bodies.
This is an important practical tool for the customer, manufacturer, designer, or tenderer.
If an organization claims to have accreditation, its status can be checked in the official NAAU register.
How to check the organization that issued the certificate?
It is advisable to carry out the inspection in several stages.
Step 1. Find the organization in the official register
First of all, you need to establish the full name of the organization, its EDRPOU code, and, if possible, the accreditation certificate number.
Next, you need to check the information in the official NAAU register.
It is important to look not only at the name of the organization, but also at the status of the certificate .
If a certificate is invalid, it cannot be treated in the same way as a valid accreditation.
The official register of the UNBA contains separate information about valid and invalid certificates.
Step 2. Check the scope of accreditation
This is one of the most important stages.
For example, an organization may be accredited to certify a specific product group, but this does not automatically mean that it has the competence to certify building panels, materials with a specific base, or products with certain characteristics.
You need to compare:
products → standard or technical regulation → assessment procedure → scope of accreditation of the body.
If the required product or procedure is not available in the accreditation area, the mere fact of having a certificate is not enough.
Step 3. Check the type of activity
It is important to understand that different organizations perform different functions.
For example:
the testing laboratory conducts the tests;
the product certification body carries out certification within its competence;
the inspection body conducts the inspection;
a management systems certification body works with management systems;
The calibration laboratory performs the calibration.
Therefore, a test report and a certificate of conformity are not the same thing.
They may be part of the same conformity assessment process but issued by different entities.
The UNBA separately publishes information on different types of conformity assessment bodies and laboratories.
Why is one certificate not enough?
Let's imagine the situation.
The supplier transfers a certificate for the building material to the customer.
The document indicates the name of the product, manufacturer, standard, document number, and date of issue.
At first glance, everything looks right.
But several questions arise:
Who issued the certificate?
Does this organization have current accreditation?
Does its scope of accreditation cover these products?
Does this product comply with the specified standard?
Were the necessary tests carried out?
Do the products in the document match the products actually delivered?
That is why professional document verification should include more than just a visual analysis of the certificate.
Certificate, test report and declaration are different documents
Another common mistake is to consider all compliance documents interchangeable.
This is not true.
The test report confirms the results of specific tests.
The certificate of conformity confirms compliance with the established requirements within the framework of the relevant certification procedure.
A declaration of conformity is a document by which a responsible party declares that a product complies with specified requirements.
The Law of Ukraine "On Technical Regulations and Conformity Assessment" directly uses the broader concept of "conformity document", which may include a declaration, protocol, report, conclusion, certificate, and other documents.
Therefore, before requesting a specific document from the manufacturer, it is necessary to first determine which conformity assessment procedure applies to the product .
The area of accreditation for building materials is particularly important
For construction products, the issue of documents can be more complicated, as requirements depend on the specific type of product, technical characteristics, and regulatory framework.
Ukraine has a Law “On the Making of Construction Products on the Market”, and legislation in the field of technical regulation and conformity assessment is regularly updated. In 2026, in particular, amendments were made to the legislation on harmonizing the accreditation and technical regulation system with European Union law.
Therefore, using old document verification templates without taking into account current legislation is risky.
This is especially true for projects where documentation is checked by the customer, technical supervision, project organization, or during the procurement procedure.
How to check the laboratory?
It is not enough for a laboratory to check just its name.
It is necessary to install:
Is the laboratory on the register of accredited bodies?
Is her certificate valid?
By what standard is it accredited?
What exactly is the scope of accreditation?
Does it cover the required test methods?
Does the test method meet the claimed product characteristics?
For testing laboratories, the NAAU register uses, in particular, the DSTU EN ISO/IEC 17025 standard. As of September 4, 2026, the register contains 751 valid accreditation certificates for testing laboratories.
This means that the customer has the opportunity to verify not only the existence of the laboratory, but also its status in the accreditation system.
How to check the product certification body?
For bodies for certification of products, processes and services, the NAAU uses the accreditation scheme according to DSTU EN ISO/IEC 17065.
But even here, the key is not only the standard, but the specific scope of accreditation .
It is she who shows what types of products and procedures fall within the competence of the authority.
Therefore the phrase:
"We are accredited according to ISO/IEC 17065"
itself does not yet answer the question of whether the authority can issue a document specifically for the desired product.
It is necessary to check the scope.
NAAU regularly expands the scope of accreditation of bodies under DSTU EN ISO/IEC 17065:2019 for new technical areas. This once again shows that accreditation is related to specific areas of activity, and is not a universal permit for certification of any product.
What to check in a building material certificate?
Before accepting a document into the project or tender documentation, it is advisable to check at least:
1. Product name.
It must correspond to the actual material.
2. Manufacturer.
The manufacturer's name in the document must match the product documents.
3. Product identification.
The model, type, brand, size or other characteristics must allow the product to be uniquely identified.
4. Regulatory document.
It is necessary to check which standard or technical regulation was used as the basis for the assessment.
5. The authority that issued the document.
It is necessary to check his status and competence.
6. Scope of accreditation.
It should cover the relevant product and procedure.
7. Validity period of the document.
It is necessary to check whether the document is valid on the date of its use.
8. Test results.
If certification is based on testing, it is important to understand where, when, and by what methods they were conducted.
What to do if the organization cannot be found in the register?
This does not always automatically mean that the document is forged or invalid.
You first need to find out what status the organization has and what document it has issued .
Not every document in the construction sector is a certificate that must be issued by an accredited body.
Individual documents may be issued by the manufacturer, an authorized entity, or other competent organization in accordance with specific legislation.
That is why the check should not begin with the question:
"Do they have a certificate?"
and on the question:
"What conformity assessment procedure is provided for this product and who has the right to conduct it?"
This is a fundamental difference.
Accreditation does not equal permission to do everything
Another common mistake is to perceive accreditation as a general permission for any type of activity.
In fact, accreditation is related to a specific competency.
That is why the concept of scope of accreditation or scope of designation is used in the legislation.
For example, a body may be competent to assess one product group but not have the appropriate competence for another.
Therefore, the correct check looks like this:
Organization → current status → accreditation standard → accreditation scope → products → procedure → document.
If one of these elements does not match, the document requires further analysis.
Why is this important during tenders?
Tender documents often require certificates, test reports, declarations, and other documents.
Sometimes a participant submits a document that formally meets the title of the requirement, but its content or scope of accreditation does not match the specific product.
For the customer, this may create a problem at later stages.
Therefore, when preparing a tender proposal, it is better to check the documents in advance.
Especially when it comes to:
fire characteristics;
strength;
hygiene indicators;
acoustic characteristics;
thermal properties;
operational characteristics;
building materials;
products for medical and public facilities.
How can a manufacturer protect itself from problems with documents?
The manufacturer should also conduct an inspection.
Before obtaining a certificate or test report, it is advisable to check the organization that will carry out the relevant work.
You need to ask:
full name of the organization;
EDRPOU code;
accreditation certificate number;
the scope of accreditation;
information on test methods;
regulatory framework for carrying out the work;
a list of documents that will be issued based on the results of the procedure.
This is especially important if the documents are planned to be used:
in tenders;
in the project documentation;
during the examination;
on large construction sites;
in medical institutions;
in educational institutions;
to confirm the fire performance of products.
Organization Verification Checklist
Before accepting a certificate or other document of compliance, you can use a simple checklist.
□ The organization is identified.
□ EDRPOU code checked.
□ The organization is found in the official register if accreditation is required for the relevant activity.
□ The accreditation certificate is valid.
□ The scope of accreditation has been verified.
□ The scope covers the required type of product.
□ The scope covers the required procedure or test method.
□ The regulatory document for which the assessment was conducted was checked.
□ Product identification in the document corresponds to the actual product.
□ The document's validity period has been checked.
□ Where necessary, the test reports on which the document is based have been checked.
Such an algorithm takes significantly less time than solving a problem after the document has already been submitted to the tender or project documentation.
Where to check accreditation?
The main source of information about accredited conformity assessment bodies in Ukraine is the official resource of the National Accreditation Agency of Ukraine .
A register of accredited CABs is available on the UNBA website, where testing laboratories, product certification bodies, inspection bodies, and other categories of conformity assessment bodies are separately presented.
To check the regulatory framework, it is also necessary to use the official Ukrainian legislative base.
This is especially relevant in 2026, as legislation in the field of technical regulation and accreditation continues to be harmonized with European approaches.
A document is only meaningful when it is clear who issued it and on what grounds.
A certificate should not be perceived as just a file with a stamp and a number.
There is a certain procedure behind it.
There is a product.
There are established requirements.
There is an evaluation method.
There is an organization that conducts the assessment.
There is her competence.
There is a scope of accreditation.
And only after that is a document of compliance formed.
Therefore, checking a certificate does not start with its appearance.
It begins with a check of the authority that issued it .
For building material manufacturers, suppliers, designers, contractors, and customers, this is a simple way to reduce the risk of using documents that do not confirm the required product characteristics.
The reliability of a document begins with the reliability of the procedure by which it was issued.
