Certification Bodies

Introduction

A key element of the GLOBALG.A.P. Standard integrity is the principle of identifying GLOBALG.A.P. certified producers as unique identities and recording all relevant producer and product information - including the certificate. For this purpose GLOBALG.A.P. operates a database of all GLOBALG.A.P. certified producers worldwide. This section introduces the database tasks managed by GLOBALG.A.P. approved Certification Bodies: registration of producers, products and certification of products. Crucial is the assignment of the GLOBALG.A.P. number (GGN) during producer registration. This 13-digit number is unique and belongs to the legal entity as long as it exists. It serves as a search key on the GLOBALG.A.P. website for validating certificates.

Training database

GLOBALG.A.P. is operating a training database, available for tests or trainings and works exactly as the “real” database. Note that the data is not saved permanently in this database and any actions executed in the training database are not invoiced. Data in the training database get updated monthly. Every employee of a GLOBALG.A.P. certification body can log in to the training database with the same login and password combination as in the regular database.

Entering the GLOBALG.A.P. Database

In order to enter the database user accounts have to be set up: the CB-Administration provides the login data of the CB manager or scheme manager with a templorary password, who has the database role CB-Executive. This CB-Executive creates all other database user accounts and supplies all employees with their login.

Entering https://database.globalgap.org the following screen appears: (screenshot "Home page")

Please continue with entering your user name and password by clicking on login. (screenshot "Login page")

During creating a user account a temporary password is generated for every user (e. g. 38h75f7). This temporary password has to be reset during the first login. (screenshot "Change password"). Users have the option to change their valid password after login at any time under My GLOBALG.A.P., too, via the link in the top right corner of the screen. In this case the password is sent to the user´s mail address. (screenshot "My GLOBALG.A.P.")

Please, note: temporary passwords are valid only for 10 days. If the user has not succeeded in loggin in, the CB-Executive has to reset the password again and forward the temporary password to the employee. If the CB-Executive cannot log in, GLOBALG.A.P./FoodPlus has to reset the password and send the temporary one to the CB-Executive.

Roles & rights

Database roles and rights of an employee shall follow the current position of the employee within the certification body. Upon login the roles assigned to an employee can be checked at the bottom of the page. (screenshot "User roles")

According to the GLOBALG.A.P. training concept it is obligatory for all auditors and inspectors to fulfil the online training requirements for version 4. First the respective auditor and inspector roles, scopes and subscopes have to be assigned in the GLOBALG.A.P. Database, then these employees can complete the online training. If they pass, this person can be selected as an auditor/inspector for certification. If the auditor or inspector fails any of the tests, the database locks them and the error message "The auditor is locked for the audit date" appears. The CB-Executive is the one to assign the CB-Committee, CB-Auditor and CB-Inspector roles and scopes, subscopes in Masterdata. CB-Committee is an additional role to the role CB-Auditor (see General Regulations Part III.6.1.b).

Please, note: the role CB-Auditor is superior to the role CB-Inspector. This means that a CB-Auditor does not need the CB-Inspector role for the same scheme version. Assigning both roles for GLOBALG.A.P. IFA v4.0 for the same modules may result in double Online Training assignments for the employee.

Certification Body roles

The system is based on the “four eyes principle”, i. e. the inspector/auditor, who carried out the audit cannot issue the certificate and be responsible for the certification decision for the same audit. To implement this rule, GLOBALG.A.P. introduced the role CB-Committee, the person carrying responsibility for the certificate decision. Roles and rights of the certification body employees´:

• CB-Executive
• CB-Committee
• CB-Committee-Modification
• CB-Auditor
• CB-Inspector
• Trustee-Executive
• Trustee-Masterdata
• Assistance