SPS audit system for West African NPPOs

This week COLEACP held its first interactive session with several West African national plant protection organisations (NPPOs) to support them in establishing an internal sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) audit system. The online meeting was virtually attended by representatives of the NPPOs in The Gambia, Ghana and Sierra Leone, along with expert consultants. The aims were to share a common understanding of the fundamentals of an internal audit system, and to agree on an approach to internal audit between representatives of NPPOs of different countries. The discussion focused on the timely example of an internal audit to implement the systems approach to fruit fly control in the mango export chain, with reference to Implementing Directive (EU) 2019/523 of 21 March 2019 and Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2072 of 28 November 2019.