Georgetown, Guyana · Serving the Caribbean
The standard-setter, now on your side of the table.
Most consultancies learned the standard from the outside. CKB Enterprise is led by Candelle Bostwick, former Executive Director of the Guyana National Bureau of Standards — the national body that sets, audits and certifies against them. Nineteen years inside Guyana’s quality infrastructure, and more than 100 ISO certification audits since. Now pointed at your system.
Former Executive Director, Guyana National Bureau of Standards.
- ISO 9001
- Took the Guyana National Bureau of Standards through its own certification, in one year
- GNBS
- Led by the former Executive Director of Guyana's national standards body
- CROSQ
- Listed on the CARICOM regional quality infrastructure database as a Conformity Assessment Body
- 5
- Standards delivered end to end: ISO 9001, 22000, 45001, 14001 and 55001
Photograph: Department of Public Information, Guyana.
The person you would be working with
Nineteen years inside the national quality infrastructure.
Candelle Bostwick joined the Guyana National Bureau of Standards in 2000 as a technical officer and left it in 2019 as its Executive Director. In between she ran conformity assessment for a decade and chaired the CARICOM regional standards body. She has since led more than 100 ISO certification audits in Guyana.
The problem
A certificate on the wall is not a management system.
Plenty of firms will sell you a folder of documents, walk you through an audit, and leave. Six months later the procedures do not match what anyone actually does, the internal audits have stopped, and the surveillance visit becomes a scramble.
That happens because the work was designed to pass an audit rather than to run a business. We were on the other side of that audit for years. We know exactly which shortcuts an assessor finds, and how quickly a system built on them falls over.
The failure points repeat: documentation, risk management, internal audit capacity, and the distance between a framework written in Geneva and the daily reality of a facility operating in Georgetown. Those are the four we build against.
What we do differently
In her own words
Twenty-five years arguing the same case.
Statements made in her capacity as Executive Director of the Guyana National Bureau of Standards. The position has not changed since she entered private practice.
“In order for the transition of our culture in Guyana, from one where price takes precedence over quality, we would like to move Guyana to a standards-driven society.”
Department of Public Information
8 June 2018
“For Guyana to meet international trade agreements, it was imperative that the GNBS as the National Standards Body adopt modern strategies and best practices to move Guyana in the direction of economic prosperity.”
Department of Public Information / GINA
26 January 2017
“As students you must be sensitised on the benefits of standards and conformity assessments which are required for us to build a sustainable and resilient construction sector in Guyana.”
Department of Public Information
8 June 2018
Services
Five engagements, one path to certification.
Each stands alone. Taken in sequence they take an organisation from no formal system to a certificate it can defend.
Gap Analysis
A structured assessment of where current practice sits against the clauses of the standard you are targeting.
- Clause-by-clause findings
- Prioritised remediation plan
- Realistic timeline and effort estimate
Management Systems Training
Standards training for your teams, from awareness sessions through to internal auditor competence.
- The Quality Accelerator Series
- Internal auditor training
- ISO webinars and on-site cohorts
ISO Mentorship
Ongoing guidance for the person inside your organisation who owns the system, so the capability stays with you.
- Named management representative support
- Document and process review
- Preparation for surveillance cycles
Internal and Supplier Audits
Audits of your own system and of the suppliers you depend on, conducted to the rigour a certification body applies.
- Pre-assessment audit before you book
- Findings graded as an assessor would grade them
- Supplier conformance across your chain
Systems Optimisation
For organisations already certified whose system has drifted, grown heavy, or stopped earning its keep.
- Process and documentation rationalisation
- Integration of multiple standards
- Non-conformity root cause work
Not sure which you need?
Most organisations start with a gap analysis because it is the only honest way to scope the rest. It is the shortest conversation we can have that is worth your money.
Start thereStandards
The programmes we take end to end.
Delivered as complete certification programmes, from gap analysis through to the certification audit.
Quality Management Systems
The baseline management system standard, and the one most procurement processes ask for by name. For most Guyanese businesses tendering into the energy, construction or public sectors, this is the certificate being requested.
Food Safety Management Systems
The whole food chain, from primary production through processing, transport, storage and retail. For a Caribbean agro-processor seeking a supermarket chain in Trinidad or an export market in North America, certification is a condition of trade rather than a differentiator.
Occupational Health and Safety
The first international standard for occupational safety and health, published in 2018. For any operation where the health, safety and welfare of employees has to be demonstrated rather than asserted.
Environmental Management Systems
Environmental performance managed as a system. Increasingly required of suppliers into the energy sector and of any operation whose licence depends on demonstrable environmental control.
Asset Management
For mining, construction, petroleum, transportation, heavy manufacturing and logistics: managing equipment, machinery and critical assets as a system. Improves asset performance and reliability, reduces downtime, manages asset-related risk, and optimises whole-of-life cost. Delivered as a full training programme.
GCS-certified courses. CKB delivers Global Compliance Service certified courses across quality management, occupational health and safety, food safety and environmental management. CKB is also approved on the Local Content Register for Other Management Systems Consultancy, Training and Mentorship. Where an organisation needs several standards integrated into one system, we scope it directly. Ask.
Leadership
She took the national standards body through ISO 9001 herself.
Candelle Bostwick spent her career inside Guyana's quality infrastructure before she advised anyone from outside it. The record below is documented in the national press, not asserted here.
Former Executive Director, Guyana National Bureau of Standards.
As Executive Director of the Guyana National Bureau of Standards, she ran the statutory body responsible for standardisation, metrology and conformity assessment. In 2017 she committed the Bureau publicly to achieving its own ISO 9001:2015 certification within a year. It was achieved in January 2018, and the Minister of Business handed over the certificate that April.
That is not a slogan. She held the national standards body to the standard it sells, on a public deadline, and met it. It is the same test she applies to a client's system: does it actually work, or does it only look like it works.
The record
- 1991–1995BSc Biochemistry, University of Guyana. Followed by an Associate of Science in Pharmacy, 1997 to 2000.
- Oct 2000Joins the Guyana National Bureau of Standards as Technical Officer. Laboratory certification officer, quality management systems auditor and trainer, laboratory management systems trainer.
- 2006–2016Head of Conformity Assessment, GNBS, for a decade. In the same period serves as Chairperson and Vice Chairperson of CROSQ, the CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality; as National Accreditation Focal Point for Guyana; and as Lead Assessor for Laboratories.
- 2016–2019Completes an MBA in Leadership and Innovation at Edinburgh Napier University while serving as Executive Director.
- Sep 2016Appointed Executive Director of the GNBS, the statutory body responsible for standardisation, metrology and conformity assessment in Guyana.
- Jan 2017Leads the review and modernisation of the Standards Act governing the Bureau, following public consultation with importers, manufacturers, regulators and consumers.
- Jan 2018Reports the Bureau's year: consultancy engagements up from 15 companies to 21, a 148 per cent increase in devices calibrated, and 572 masses calibrated against 296 the year before. Names the oil and gas supplier register as the cause.
- Jan 2018Presents certification to the Woodlands Hospital Pathology Laboratory and the Guyana Defence Force Medical Laboratory under the National Laboratory Certification Programme, bringing the number of certified laboratories in Guyana to twelve.
- Apr 2018The GNBS attains its own ISO 9001:2015 certificate, one year after she committed the Bureau publicly to achieving it. The Minister of Business hands it over at Herdmanston Lodge.
- May 2018Works with the Energy Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago to develop a Safe To Work certification programme for Guyana's oil and gas sector, setting the health, safety and environmental requirements contractors must attain to prequalify.
- Jun 2018Hosts ASTM International's first standards road show in Guyana, for the construction sector, at the Pegasus Hotel.
- Aug 2019Leaves the GNBS after nineteen years, the last three as Executive Director.
- Feb 2020Becomes Chief Executive Officer and Lead Auditor of Global Compliance Service Guyana Inc., the resident office of an IAS-accredited certification body headquartered in Geneva.
- 2020–2025Leads more than 100 ISO certification audits in Guyana across ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001 and ISO 29001, in the food, manufacturing, industrial and service sectors.
- Feb 2023Presents GO-NDE Inc. with its ISO 29001:2020 certificate, making it the first Guyanese oil service company certified to the petroleum sector's quality standard.
- Jun 2025Concludes five years and five months at Global Compliance Service Guyana.
- Jan 2024 –Principal Consultant and Auditor, CKB Enterprise Guyana. Certified by Exemplar Global as a Lead QMS Auditor, current to January 2027. Approved on the Guyana Local Content Register through March 2027.
Sectors
Where a management system stops being optional.
Agro-processing and export
Producers moving from domestic shelves into regional distribution and export, where documented quality systems are a condition of trade rather than a nice-to-have.
Energy and supply chain
Operators and tier-one contractors impose management system requirements through procurement. Suppliers on the Local Content Register compete on demonstrable capability, not just registration.
Manufacturing and construction
Firms tendering into large projects where a quality management certificate is a pre-qualification line item rather than a differentiator.
Public sector and laboratories
Agencies and testing facilities formalising service delivery, and organisations preparing for the scrutiny that comes with larger budgets.
Engagement
How a certification programme actually runs.
No surprises, and no stage begins before the previous one has produced something you can act on.
Scoping conversation
What you make or do, who is asking you to certify, and by when. Often this call establishes that you need a narrower scope than you assumed, which makes the whole programme cheaper.
Gap analysis
A clause-by-clause assessment of current practice against the target standard, returned as a prioritised plan with an effort estimate you can budget against.
Build and document
The system is written to describe how your operation genuinely runs. Where practice needs to change, that change is agreed with the people who do the work, not imposed on them.
Train and embed
Awareness training for the organisation and internal auditor competence for the people who will keep the system honest between visits.
Pre-assessment audit
The dry run, conducted to the rigour a certification body applies, with findings graded the way an assessor would grade them, so the readiness decision is evidence-based.
Certification and beyond
Support through the certification audit itself, then mentorship through the surveillance cycle so the system is still working in year three.
Training and events
A live training calendar, not a brochure.
Courses run as scheduled virtual cohorts and as closed sessions on your site. A free webinar runs regularly on the terminology and mechanics of standards, open to anyone.
ISO 55001 Asset Management Training
For business owners and QHSSE professionals in mining, construction, petroleum, transportation, heavy manufacturing and logistics. Improve asset performance and reliability, reduce equipment downtime and unnecessary cost, manage asset-related risk, optimise the lifecycle of your assets, and strengthen operational decision-making.
Registration deadline: 11 September 2026
Register by WhatsAppISO 9001 Requirements
Three days. How the context of the organisation shapes a quality management system, and how to measure whether it is performing.
Ask about datesQMS Internal Auditor
Four days, virtual, 09:30 to 16:30. Qualifies your internal auditors to deliver findings that add value rather than paperwork.
Ask about datesISO 22000 Requirements
Three days, virtual, GCS-certified. For food production, processing, packaging, transport, storage, distribution, retail and catering, at any size.
Ask about datesThe Quality Accelerator Series
A programme for micro, small and medium businesses: standards combined with hands-on practice. Sessions have covered building a quality culture and writing policies and procedures that people can actually follow.
Ask about the next sessionThe webinar series
Open sessions on the topics that trip organisations up: certification versus accreditation, risk-based thinking and risk assessment, corrective action and closing out non-conformities, and what a certification body actually looks for.
Ask to be addedConsultancy and audit
Gap analysis, pre-assessment audit and systems optimisation can be booked directly. Durations are set per engagement.
Book onlineStart here
Find out what certification would actually take.
A short scoping conversation costs you nothing and usually changes the plan. Tell us the standard you are being asked for and who is asking, and we will tell you honestly what is involved.
CKB Enterprise · Lot 16 Pike Street, Kitty, Georgetown, Guyana
ckenterprise2024@gmail.com · +592 684 1061