Gearing Up for Surveillance Audits

To ensure compliance with sustainability principles and criteria, parties that have obtained sustainability certificates undergo a surveillance audit conducted by a third party, namely an official inspection and certification body in the oil palm industry.

In Indonesia, Solidaridad, together with farmers in Semangat village, Bengkayang district, West Kalimantan, recently held a coordination meeting to prepare for one such surveillance audit. The Karya Nyata Mandiri Cooperative, which received the Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) certification in March 2024, took important steps to prepare for the audit.

During preparation, our field team as well as the cooperative management and members of the Internal Control System, also discussed improvements to the audit files containing relevant findings.

The Secretary of Semangat Village said, "The audit activities in the cooperative facilitated by Solidaridad are very good when it comes to helping farmers in terms of compliance with sustainability principles and criteria." He also reminded that the certificate obtained can be cancelled if sustainable agricultural practices are not implemented regularly. "That is why the preparation activities for this surveillance audit are very important to carry out," he added.

The surveillance was finally carried out in the last week of January 2025, with PT Global Inspeksi Sertifikasi (GIS) as the auditor. Several necessities need to be taken care of:

• Fire extinguishing simulations?must be carried out?at least twice a year.
• Every ISPO principle and criteria document must be updated periodically.
• Annual monitoring and production documents can be attached for ISPO internal audits.
• First-aid kits must be available in each storage warehouse, in accordance with the Minister of Manpower Regulation No. 15 of 2021.
• Updating of records of socialization activities must be carried out periodically by the cooperative team and ICS members.