About us
Our story
CQA Certification Kft. was founded in Budapest in 2024 by professionals with many years of experience in accredited certification, on a simple conviction: trust is not declared, it is built. The idea, conceived by attorney Paolo Di Franco and developed together with Martina Schmidt as General Manager, became a certification body designed to combine technical rigour, independence and transparency at every stage of the certification process.
From the start, the work focused on the foundations: an internal management system compliant with ISO/IEC 17021-1, the standard that sets out the requirements for bodies certifying management systems, together with technical and commercial partnerships in Italy and in Europe.
In May 2026, after the assessment carried out by NAH (Nemzeti Akkreditáló Hatóság), the Hungarian national accreditation authority, CQA was accredited for the certification of ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 management systems. Thanks to NAH's participation in the EA and IAF multilateral agreements, accredited CQA certificates are recognised by the accreditation bodies that have signed them.
Our mission
To support organisations in achieving excellence and sustainable growth through high-quality certification services delivered by a team of highly qualified auditors.
Our principles
Impartiality
Impartiality, both actual and perceived, is the essential condition of our credibility. Certification decisions are based only on the objective evidence gathered during the audit, free from any other interest. We actively identify and address every threat to objectivity, from conflicts of interest to excessive familiarity.
Competence
Trust in our certificates rests on demonstrable competence. We select, train and continually evaluate our personnel, defining for each role the knowledge, skills and experience needed to conduct accurate and rigorous audits.
Responsibility
We act with professionalism and diligence and take full responsibility for our decisions. Responsibility for conformity with the requirements remains with the certified organisation: our task is to assess sufficient objective evidence, aware that every audit is based on sampling.
Openness
We provide appropriate and timely public access to information about the audit process and the status of certifications: granting, maintaining, extending, renewing, suspending, restoring or withdrawing. Openness makes our work verifiable and strengthens its credibility.
Confidentiality
We rigorously protect the client information obtained during certification activities: process, financial, technical and personnel data. To this end we use formal agreements with all collaborators, information security procedures and continuous training.
Responsiveness to complaints
Every complaint is examined carefully and, when justified, handled appropriately and promptly. Proper complaint handling protects not only the certification body but also clients and all users of certification.
Risk-based approach
We focus resources and attention on the most critical aspects of conformity and proactively manage the risks that may affect our activities: audit objectives and sampling, threats to impartiality, legal and liability issues, the health and safety of audit teams and the correct use of certification marks.
These principles are set out in our impartiality policy, signed by top management. Their application is overseen by the committee for safeguarding impartiality, and certification decisions are taken by persons who did not take part in the audit.
CQA in figures
- Accredited standards
- 3
- Accredited IAF sectors
- 26
- Office in Budapest
- 1
Where we are
Registered office
1094 Budapest, Liliom utca 1/A 6.em.3
Registered office at a professional firm, used only for keeping tax and administrative records. No business or certification activities take place there.