Cooperating in Integrated System Quality Assurance through the Life Cycle of defence products there are: 1)Delegator, 2)Acquirer, 3)Owner, 4)Supplier, 5)Delegatee; defined in AQAP 2000 – NATO Policy of Integrated System Quality Assurance through the Life Cycle.
Cooperating in GQA - Government Quality Assurance there are: 1) Delegator, national authority in purchasing nation; 2) Delegatee, national authority in purchasing nation, defined in AQAP 2070 – Government Quality Assurance Process.
Scope
The intent of this process is to standardise and harmonise the process by which the participating nations request and provide GQA to each other. The Mutual GQA process described herein is implemented by authority of NATO Standardisation Agreement 4107 that has been ratified by each of the participating NATO nations.
Purpose of NATO Standardisation Agreement 4107
Mutual recognition of Government Quality Assurance and the use of Allied Publications for Quality Assurance of defence products.
Agreement
Cooperating nations agree, that appropriate national body of suppling nation in her state on request of appropriate national body of purchasing nation or agency assure the service of Government Quality Assurance (GQA) for supply of all kind of defence products.
Use
It is agreed, that requirements for GQA will be limited to those cases, where quality cannot be sufficiently controlled by reception and by which is assessed, that GQA by source is necessary, that risk area that was stated by product or contractor is dimeanished and appropriate national body in purchassing nation or NATO (delegator) sends the list of requests for QGA to appropriate national body of supplier nation (delegatee) soon enough.
Request for GQA
Request for GQA is demanded on time basis in accoordance with the recommendations in guidance document AQAP-2070. The request includes all necessary data, at least the national body to which technical requests, contractual recommendations, requests for QGA, definition of appropriate document AQAP and the nature of risk, which is the cause of request, are addressed. Use of documents AQAP is in accoordance with AQAP-2000. Delegator assures, that delegatee receives a copy of the contract and references to supporting documents.
Implementation process of GQA
GQA is implemented in conformance with agreements between delegator and delegatee, based on guidance AQAP-2070. Within GQA are addressed following themes: OFFICIAL NOTICE ABOUT NONCONFORMED REQUIREMENTS – if delegator recognizes, that any time during running of procedure he cannot continue because of nonconformance of contractor`s QMS or product and that such defaults are decisive or delivery would cross time limits, he must immediately present defiencies to delegator; CERTIFICATE OF CONFORMANCE - delegatee such CoC uses for every lot, serie or shipment and about that informs delegator, except if it is not determined by delegator other way; DELIVERY – product, for which GQA is required, is delivered in conformance with the agreement between delegator and delegatee; CONCESSION AND DEVIATION PERMIT – contractor´s requirements for concession and deviation permit, that have influence on safety, reliability, durability, interchangeability, repair and store time, implementation/use or price, are communicated to delegator by delegatee, or is decided about that and conducted; DELEGATOR PARTICIPATION – delegator has right to visit supplier during running contract/subcontract. Each such visit is organized by delegatee, who has right to accompany delegator.
Responsibility
The fact, that the certificate of conformance is signed by delegatee, does not excuse the contractor of responsibility for supply, that satisfies every contractual requirement. If deficiencies are discovered during acceptance or after that, the charge for that does not belong to delegatee, but delegatee cooperates with delegator during investigation deficiencies. Delegator delivers complete description of deficiencies to delegatee together with the documentation, and if possible, with samples of deficient parts.
Conclusion
QGA supervision, based on risk assessment is efficient medium, which exploites government resources to assess risk of certain project, bid or contract. Because of unified government quality assurance GQA, which identifies risk, the participation of delegator and delegatee is essential. GQA concept in the same time enables mutual comparision of different projects before decision about contact.
Abbreviations
AQAP – Allied Quality Assurance Publication
GQA - Government Quality Assurance
ZK-V– vladno zagotavljanje kakovosti