• Forms
  • Organic Agriculture Certification Application Form
  • Good Agricultural Practices Application Form

A. Impartiality

TURKGAP is not dependent to any company, body, institution, entity or individual. Certification activities being away from all financial, administrative, political and commercial pressure and completely independent and impartial are an indispensable condition for us.

TURKGAP responds to submitted applications in all sectors it is accredited or all activities it would be engaged completely according to its own policies and goals without discrimination of religion, language, race, political view and geographic area.

It has therefore set up and authorized Advisory Committees ton maintain impartiality.

Advisory Committee; is set up equally to represent all relevant parties TURKGAP is engaged in.

Advisory Committees have the authority to act independently in their decisions and information relating to all activities is furnished to the committee by TURKGAP and situation assessment is done and necessary measures are taken.

All certification and training activities carried out by TURKGAP are open to the inspection of the Advisory Committee.

The principles of these auditing and working are audited by the accreditation body.

TURKGAP never provided advisory services in any matter it provides certification services. It never makes certification in any sector or subject it would have interest in. TURKGAP never make certification in any matters involving its partners, causing conflict of interests or in any sector or subject it would be engaged in.

TURKGAP has identified the situations that may lead to conflict of interest and their risks. These situations are periodically assessed by the advisory committees as well.

It never gets engaged in trainings that may acquire advisory qualification.

TURKGAP in the certification activities it carries out employs completely independent, impartial and qualified auditors. If it cannot provide these conditions, it does not make certification.

B. Efficiency

TURKGAP in all activities it conducts or those it will conduct realizes efficiency analysis, revision and planning in terms of personnel, auditors, lead auditors, technical experts, information, infrastructure, working environment, financial power etc.

TURKGAP takes certification work it performs seriously and tries its best to be at the top in reliability and efficiency in this matter.

TURKGAP strictly complies with certification rules and ethics. As an auditing body, it never practices double standard and never issues certificate to those who do not deserve and those who deserve do get their certificates.

At its head office administration and representations, TURKGAP employs personnel who hold the determined qualifications which will secure customer's satisfaction at the highest level and the performance of these personnel is continuously assessed.

Efficiency analyses are conducted by taking into consideration the internal auditing results, accreditation bodies' reports, customer complaints/requests, corrective/preventive actions results, customer questionnaire outcomes, auditor feedbacks, routine meetings, management revision meetings and advisory committee meeting results.

Financial Efficiency :

TURKGAP does not have any financial liabilities to any institutions, bodies or individuals. All merchandise, product and service purchases are done by its own procedures and freewill. It performs its works by itself and operates in the manner that all its partners are able to fulfill such activities. TURKGAP's Board of Directors have undertaken to maintain TURKGAP's financial efficiency with their own equities and assets.

C. Responsibility

The TURKGAP Management is responsible for all steps of reception of applications, making offer/agreement, auditing planning, auditing committee appointment, auditing, reporting, deciding on the certificate, scope modification auditing, certificate renewing auditing, advisory committee appointment and working for providing the certification service and implementation of the activities in accordance with national and international accreditation requirements, securing of impartiality, analysis of interest relationship and bring it to an acceptable level, abide by confidentiality and provision of the adequate resource and infrastructure for the achievement of al activities.

TURKGAP has provided Occupational Liability Insurance for risks that might arise from certification activities. TURKGAP certification activities are open to all applicant corporations nationwide. Therefore, the Occupational Liability Insurance is made with qualified insurance companies in compliance with the national regulations.

As third parties are protected against the risks generating from TURKGAP's activities, in the event of second parties' risks TURKGAP uses its own budgets (for instance, repetition of auditing and similar situations).

D. Legibility

TURKGAP communicates and conveys the information and documents that would be needed by certified corporations or applicant corporations through its website at www.turkgap.com and via correspondence. These documents contain explanatory information about fields of our activities, e.g. the procedure of how can I apply a good agricultural practice, certification regulations, logo utilization, wage and price determination, application form, complaints and appeal forms etc.

TURKGAP certification and pricing terms are expressed clearly and understandably in the quotation/agreement and submitted to the corporation (customer) for confirmation.

Amendments that may take place in TURKGAP certification process and practices are actively announced and notified to the corporation on the website and correspondences.

Information about certified corporations, corporations whose certificates are suspended or terminated can be reached from the website by using appropriate verification criteria or directly from TURKGAP head office by preserving the rights of the certified corporations and their confidential information.

TURKGAP is a corporation open to auditing and information sharing within the principle of confidentiality. All TURKGAP's activities are open to the inspection of competent authorities, accreditation bodies, advisory committee (impartiality securing committee), independent certification committee, sector representatives and the customers.

E. Confidentiality

Confidentiality at TURKGAP is secured within the frames of the rules stipulated in the ISO PAS 17002 Standards.

F. Solution of complaints

All complaints incoming over website www.turkgap.com via e-mail and those delivered verbally or in writing are registered and assessed by the "complaints and appeal committee" which is completely independent from certifying and certification processing bodies and first of all complaints are determined whether they are in connection with the certification activities or not. Moreover, the independent decision concerning the complainant and complaint matter and confidentiality are basic conditions.

On the website, there are two sections created for the general complaints and certificate complaints (complaints incoming for corporations). Complaints are formatted in a manner they are delivered to the "complaints and appeal committee" via e-mail.

Solution of Complaints :

1. 1) Solution of complaints received in regards with the service during all stages of TURKGAP's certification process :

In order to improve its performance in presentation of service TURKGAP, all written and verbal complaints received are recorded and assessed within the framework of the procedure.

After each auditing, customer questionnaires are created and complaints and inquiries regarding TURKGAP office management and auditing committee are assessed and then the necessary improvement is conducted.

2. Solution of complaints received regarding the corporations certified by TURKGAP:

Complaints concerning the goods or the services supplied or rendered by certified corporations are conveyed to the corporation in the shortest time and the corporation is then requested to have such complaints evaluated within the framework of corrective action procedure and the case is concluded. Evaluation results and taken actions are notified to complaining persons or corporations. In the assessment of complaints filed in connection with certified corporations, solution is not requested from the certified corporation only, the stages of certification shall also be revised and TURKGAP's certification process shall also be assessed retroactively.

TURKGAP in all assessments conducted to the corporations (first certification, survey, certificate renewal or change of scope etc.) shall audit whether the complaints received from the customers were effectively handled or not.

Settlement of Appeals ;

In connection with auditing results or corporation complaints, appeals filed against decisions made by the ICC (Independent Certification Committee) are identified as appeals filed against major/minor/survey findings or recommendation decision and appeals filed against the auditing committee and the way these appeals are treated and solved according to the complaints and appeals evaluation procedure set up and applied for this purpose.

Impartiality and independence are taken as basis in handling appeals. This is why appeals are handled and treated by the "complaints and appeal committee" which is set up independently from auditing, certification and decision making processes.




TURKGAP is a member of IFOAM (International Federation of Organic Agriculture).