Doha, May 15 (QNA) -The Public Works Authority ‘Ashghal’ has been awarded ISO 17025 by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS), as the first government agency in the State of Qatar to receive accreditation and successfully maintain it for four consecutive years.

Ashghal’s Centre for Research and Development succeeded in passing the rigorous procedures to re-evaluate the quality of the laboratory for the fourth time, thus maintaining its position as the first governmental laboratory centre to be accredited by ISO 17025 from the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS).

In this regards Eng. Mohamed Ali Darwish, Director of Technical Support Affairs at Ashghal, confirmed that receiving ISO 17025, the most important international standard for testing and calibration laboratories, reflects the degree of international trust and the Centre's outputs to be a reference.

Centre for Research and Development conducts research work on all construction projects, infrastructure, roads and treated wastewater, which is being constructed, operated and managed by PWA.

"The centre's works are supported by the latest laboratory equipment, which covers all kinds of environmental and civil engineering tests, which conduct tests on roads, concrete, buildings and sewage projects, in addition to supporting the centre’s employees in obtaining all necessary trainings",He added.

He continued saying that that the UKAS accreditation to Ashghal’s centre directly improves its efficiency with all its components, and recognizes it nationally and internationally. It also enhances confidence in the labs and the results of its tests, this is because the accreditation depends on a rigorous evaluation procedures carried out by the British Commission to ensure the highest administrative and technical quality and efficiency.

"We started years ago to pay attention to the importance of labs and a plan was put to develop the mechanism of work to obtain international accreditation for all Ashghal laboratories. And after considerable efforts, the centre was accredited ISO 17025 as the only government entity in Qatar accredited by UKAS, this is in addition to ISO for quality, safety and environment", said Eng. Khalid Mohammed Al-Emadi, Director of Quality and Safety Department.

He added: "For us, ISO is a commitment to a certain level of quality and efficiency,with no room for mistakes. Therefore, we are keen to ensure that the tests are carried out in a fundamental manner, with the aim of calibrating the devices at the highest level, and ensure correction of any mistake once it is discovered, and guarantee it will not be repeated again, otherwise the Centre will lose international accreditation".

Al-Emadi added that one of the most important requirements for the renewal of the international accreditation of ISO 17025, which makes it difficult to renew its accreditation annually, is to continuously update the laboratory equipment and ensure its continuous performance with the highest efficiency and at the highest level to achieve the most accurate results.

This is in addition to training the technical staff working in laboratories to keep them abreast of the latest technologies and raise their abilities to handle all tests and bring out the best and most accurate results, which match the efficiency of the largest laboratories in the world.

He stressed that the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) delegation undertakes each year a laboratories comparison, in which some tests are conducted on a standard sample in Ashghal’s laboratories, and the results are sent abroad to assess their accuracy compared to the results of the labs across theworld. If the centre results proved its accuracy the accreditation is renewed and if the results show inaccuracy, the ISO 17025 is withdrawn immediately.

Regarding the safety in laboratories, Al-Emadi said that preserving them is one of the most important criteria on which to obtain and maintain ISO.To achieve this goal, all labs are checked every day to ensure the level of bacteria is within the accepted limits, so as not to harm the health of employees. 

Staff and workers are trained on how to handle materials and equipment, and Ashghal is keen on providing them with all necessary safety instructions, as well as periodic exercises on how to evacuate the building in case of emergency.(QNA)