The devastating earthquake which occurred in southeast Turkey on 6th February 2023 has severely affected daily lives in the surrounding regions. GOTS sends heartfelt wishes of support to all those affected and to those involved in the rescue efforts.
Following this natural disaster, GOTS Management has decided to release a set of exceptional rules for Certified Entities in these affected regions.
1. GOTS Scope Certificates that have expired recently or are about to expire in the period February through May 2023, shall be given an extension of 180 calendar days towards arranging recertification.
2. For the application of and issuance of Transaction Certificates, in addition to the timeline stated in the Policy for the Issuance of Transaction Certificates1 an additional period of 90 calendar days shall be available to Certified Entities.
3. Further, GOTS allows Virtual Audits to be performed as and if required for those certified entities and their subcontractors who either have audits scheduled or those which fall due in the next 180 calendar days. A general guideline2 for Virtual Audits is available on the GOTS
website.
GOTS Approved Certifiers are required to give a prior intimation to GOTS for such cases. As before, the extended period shall not be considered towards extending the validity period of the new scope certificate which means that the renewed scope certificate, when issued shall expire on the anniversary of the older certificate. Further, Licence Fees for 2023 shall be payable by Certified Entities in all cases since it is a new licensing period.
GOTS will continue to review the situation in these regions and provide further relief or issue new timelines if necessary.
For more information, please contact Prachi Gupta; prachi@global–standard.org or Bükra Kalayci kalayci@global–standard.org
