Assurance

FLOCERT provides independent and impartial assurance services. This requires the following five components:

• A three-party relationship – the responsible party who prepares the information to be assured; the independent practitioner who assures the information; and the users who are expected to rely on the information. In the case of a Fairtrade audit, the responsible party is the management of the Fairtrade-certified organization, the practitioner is FLOCERT as the audit firm and the users are primarily the Fairtrade stakeholders.
• An agreed subject matter – in the case of a Fairtrade audit, this would be all aspects of the organization relating to relevant Fairtrade Standards. And on a more general level, it could be almost anything – the systems operated by a state lottery, a company’s greenhouse gas emissions, controls over a supply chain etc.
• Suitable criteria – this means that there must be some agreed framework to which the information may be compared. In the case of Fairtrade, this will be the form of the Fairtrade Standards and the relevant compliance criteria.
• Sufficient appropriate evidence. The practitioner (i.e. FLOCERT) must obtain sufficient appropriate evidence that the subject matter information is in line with the criteria.
• A conclusion expressed in a written report.