History:
Accordia Global Compliance Group was established in March 2001 in response to North American brands seeking professional, competent and affordable monitoring and certification of factories within their supply chains. Accordia was founded under three simple and straightforward business principles that provide a 'License to Operate' in this industry:
Recruit, professionally train, and qualify personnel that will service their clients
Anticipate, understand, and fulfill the expectations and needs of their clients
Return value to their clients through responsive, accurate, and timely delivery of services
In 2002, Accordia was granted accreditation by Worldwide Responsible Apparel Production (WRAP) for the country of Honduras within the Americas. Today, AGC Group is accredited by WRAP in several countries that are the main sourcing regions in the world for apparel including Nicaragua, Mexico, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. In 2003 AGC expanded its offerings to include monitoring, auditing and consulting to widely accepted standards including SA8000 and the Fair Labor Association’s Workplace Code of Conduct. In that same year and afterwards, leading brands and companies have come to rely on AGC Group to provide supply chain monitoring to their own codes of conduct. Included in this list are Levi Strauss & Company, Wal-Mart, New Era Cap Company, Gildan Activewear and Talbots. Today, AGC operates from a head office located in the Buffalo, New York from which local customer support and global operations are directed. Eight staff professionals provide focused support in the areas of Client Services, Quality Assurance, Legal and Regulatory Research, Marketing and Administration and Finance. Global Operations:
AGC Group is a truly global company with representation and staff in various countries. Monitors and staff are located in the countries of Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India. AGC’s head office provides close oversight and employs local monitors within these countries that are familiar with national laws and regulations, regional customs and local practices of factories. All monitoring/audit personnel are perfectly bilingual in English and their own native language. The remaining personnel include subject matter and legal experts that are contracted and utilized on an as-needed basis. AGC maintains offices outside the United States in the countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, El Salvador and Honduras. The newest office in Singapore services China and Southeast Asia. Audit Practices:
AGC Code Monitoring/Auditing events are conducted under standard practices for systems auditing modeled on ISO10011 guidelines. This approach provides a systematic and standardized process for the auditors in conducting their work. The objective of using this approach is to provide consistency in evaluation of a factory and the reporting of results to the clients. On-site audits, depending on the Code requirement, may consist of the following elements:
Pre-audit research on auditee to advise audit team about potential issues of concern
Audit notification to factory (if announced audit is requested) to explain expectations
Opening Meeting with key factory personnel and audit team
Records Review (employment, payroll, hours of work, etc.) Gathering information from workers via confidential discussions
Physical inspection of factories for workplace conditions and health and safety
On-site reporting of findings prior to departure of audit team
Preparation of corrective or remedial action plan to resolve findings
Closing Meeting with key factory personnel and audit team to present findings and obtain agreement on corrective or remedial actions to be done
Reporting:
AGC reporting of audit results is normally customized to the format required by a client; however, normal code audit reporting includes the following reports:
On-site report of findings (to factory and client)
On-site report of corrective/remedial action with signed acknowledgement by auditor/factory (to factory and client)
Audit report that details findings and observations made by the auditor for each element of the Code or Standard (to client)
Audit report findings shall clearly state the legal/regulatory requirement, the finding that is not in compliance with the requirement and relevant comments on observations (objective evidence) obtained by the auditor
Overall assessment commentary, included in the audit report to client, based on findings of the audit team on compliance to the Code or Standard
AGC recommendation regarding revisit (monitoring) of the factory (to client).
