These traditionally operated as nonprofit entities that were partially funded by the government. Privatization also raises the issue of accountability and public access to these organizations. But European officials generally prefer to go it alone rather than have governments politicize the accreditation process, they say. The IAF is a new organization of accreditor, industry, government, and consumer representatives who want to develop rules to govern accreditation bodies worldwide. We should be accountable to government, but I don't want to see government turn our work into a political football.
Funding does become a problem when accreditation bodies have to raise money by themselves.
The creation of a Europeanwide standards system means that there is little role left for national standards-writing bodies, says Keith Tozzi, the British Standards Institution's managing director and supervisor of the BSI restructuring. BSI's standards-development arm will shrink, and the commercial division will grow. The commercial arm must grow for BSI to compete in a global marketplace, he says. If things go as is, we'll become the British office of EA on the standards-writing side. The aim is to save businesses money in the short run.