In the agricultural industry, many businesses own and operate several production units or operations as part of their company structure. During an audit, the audit team will include all these business sections as part of the legal entity managed under one management system. It is important to ensure that all of your audited PUCs/PHCs are included on your account and SAQs to ensure that visibility is correct for markets. Please remember that your PUCs will be listed on your Audit Completion Letter and Audit Report.
Multisites, namely businesses that own/operate multiple production/processing/packing sites under a single entity and the same management system, must ensure that all the PUCs/PHCs for all their sites are included on the multisite account and in the audit.
In cases where a business operates another business under the same trade name (or legal entity), but this business has a different management system, it is strongly advised and recommended that such a business complies with the requirements of the SIZA programme and is included in the scope of the SIZA audit. The business should register this entity as a separate account on MySIZA and undergo a separate audit. This protects the business’ integrity and ensures accurate representation of the business operating under one entity/trade name. If you do not want to or cannot audit all your crops/PUCs simultaneously, please register the ones you want to exclude under a different company name and provide proof to SIZA or the audit firm during the audit. The same is relevant when you rent an additional PUC or if someone rented a PUC from you. PUCs that are not under your management system, or ownership cannot be included in the profile.
If the business obtains a new PUC or PHC after an audit has been done, it cannot simply be added to the existing report and Audit Completion Letter because it did not form part of the original audit scope. The supplier will have the option to:
- Register a separate profile, which will undergo a separate audit and receive a separate audit completion letter. Once the main profile’s audit cycle is renewed, it can be added again to the other profile to be included in that audit.
- The PUC is added to the existing profile, and a full new audit is conducted to include the new PUC or PHC as part of the original site.
- In cases where the audit firm has confirmed that the PUCs were included in the scope of the latest/current audit (appears on audit report/formal communication from audit firm) but the PUC was not listed on the account or SAQ, it can be added as long as it is indicated in the latest audit report. This needs to be signed off by the firm conducting the original audit.
For more information, please feel free to contact SIZA at 021 852 8184 or email carmen@siza.co.za.
