Appeals

The Verified Entity has the opportunity to appeal the findings in their report. This can be done within five days of receiving the preliminary Verification Report. The appeal needs to be in writing, addressed to the Verifications Manager in charge, and will be resolved or addressed, as per the company policy on appeals, within 30 days of receipt.

Complaints
The Verified Entity has the opportunity to complain about any aspect of service delivery. This may be done at any stage during the verifications process, and the complaint needs to be in writing, addressed to the Verifications Manager and Admin Manager. Cardinal Ratings will endeavor to resolve all complaints within a reasonable time as per the company policy on complaints, which is no later than within 30 days of receipt.

For any appeals or complaints kindly e-mail: info@cardinalratings.co.za

Complaints procedure

 All complaints must be in writing. If a complaint is not received in writing, and the person dealing with the complainant must write down the complaint on behalf of the complainant.

Any compliant received from a client or other third party will be responded to within 48 hours, with an acknowledgement that the matter is being attended to, and that a response will be forthcoming after it has been appropriately investigated.

All complaints related to CARDINAL RATINGS will be forwarded to the Admin Manager and respective manager who will log the details into the complaints Report Form (CM-F01). The manager should not be the same person involved in the matter that is the subject of the complaint, to ensure independence.

The Manager, together with the Admin manager must acknowledge receipt of the complaint in writing within five days of receipt. The acknowledgement must include the contact details of the person dealing with the resolution of the complaint.

Once logged, the Manager is to determine the nature of the complaint and how best to investigate and resolve the issue at hand.

The Admin Manager is to investigate the complaint to ascertain whether it can be resolved immediately.

If it can, the Admin Manager/ Manager will take the necessary action and advise the client/ employee of resolution.

If the complaint cannot be resolved immediately, a letter must be sent to the client with following details

–  An explanation of steps of the complaints process

 – A request for a meeting to gain a better understanding of nature and circumstance surrounding the complaint.

If a complaint is related to a company that has not been verified by CARDINAL RATINGS, the complaint will be forwarded to the verified company after the complainant has been informed that the verified company will be contacted. The same would apply to any government institution related to verification activities.

All complaint resolutions must take into account the confidentiality (MP-003) of information provided by the verified clients.

All staff members who have been assigned the resolution of a complaint shall take ownership of the complaint, and liaise with the client if further information is required in order to resolve the complaint. That staff member shall be independent of the complaint.

The Manager responsible shall track the process of resolution on a weekly basis and work towards a resolution within no more than four weeks. The client shall be updated using email on a weekly basis about the progress in the complaint resolution.

If the complaint has been resolved, a finding report will be sent to the complainant including the resolution, as well as informing them of the end of the complaint handling process.

If unable to resolve the complaint within four weeks of the complaint being logged in the Complaints Register, or if the client/employee is not satisfied with the resolution, the client shall be notified and advised of their rights to

– Seek legal redress in another forum, or

– Allow extended time for resolution based on the complexity of the complaint

The Complaints Register shall be updated with all developments and activities in relation to the complaint, including the resolution.

The results from this process will be documented together with the response. The Admin Manager will be responsible for ensuring a record of all complaints is maintained according to this procedure. These will be reviewed quarterly and recommendations made if amendments to policies shall be needed. The amendments should lead to less complaints and more efficient procedures.

The Admin Manager or assigned manager must evaluate the effectiveness of the actions taken to address the complaint raised by the client – and in this regard, form CM-F02 must be completed at the end of the complaints process. The Verification manager or line manager shall analyze the root cause of the complaint and use the findings for staff training 2 weeks after the resolution of the complaint.