Concept site. Prepared by EICCIO Advisors for the review of CKB Enterprise Guyana. This is not an official CKB property and is hosted on eiccio.net. Content is a proposal and is unpublished.

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. Twenty-five years of building management systems, now pointed at yours.

Book a gap analysis CKB in the news
Candelle Bostwick, Principal Consultant and Management Systems Auditor, CKB Enterprise Guyana
Candelle Bostwick Managing Director and Consultant.
Former Executive Director, Guyana National Bureau of Standards.
“We would like to move Guyana to a standards-driven society.”

Candelle Bostwick  ·  Department of Public Information, June 2018

”
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
9001  22000
Core certification programmes delivered end to end

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

We build it to survive surveillance. Systems documented against how your operation genuinely runs, so the second and third year audits are routine rather than a crisis.
We tell you before the assessor does. A pre-assessment audit conducted to the same rigour as the certification body's, so nothing in the real audit is a surprise.
We hand the system over. Mentorship is a named service, not an upsell. The objective is that your people run the system without us.
We work with businesses that have no quality officer. Training is designed for owners and managers without a quality management background, not only for corporate teams with a compliance department.

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
La Caribeña News Stabroek News Department of Public Information Guyana Chronicle CROSQ Georgetown Chamber of Commerce & Industry

Read the full press record

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.

01

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
02

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
03

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
04

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
05

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 there

Standards

The programmes we take end to end.

Delivered as complete certification programmes, from gap analysis through to the certification audit.

ISO 9001

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.

ISO 22000

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.

ISO 45001

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.

ISO 14001

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.

ISO 55001

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.

Candelle Bostwick, Managing Director and Consultant, CKB Enterprise Guyana
Candelle Bostwick Managing Director and Consultant, CKB Enterprise Guyana.
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.

“We cannot sell standards or tell persons how standards will benefit them and we are not demonstrating that. We are indeed using the standards to improve our system so that we can become more efficient.” Candelle Bostwick, as Executive Director, GNBS  ·  Department of Public Information, April 2018

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.

Minister of Business Dominic Gaskin hands the ISO 9001:2015 certificate to Candelle Bostwick, Director of the Guyana National Bureau of Standards, April 2018
Receiving the GNBS ISO 9001:2015 certificate from the Minister of Business, 9 April 2018. Photograph: Department of Public Information, Guyana.

The record

  • 2017Leads the review and modernisation of the Standards Act governing the GNBS, following public consultation with importers, manufacturers, regulators and consumers.
  • Jan 2018Reports GNBS consultancy engagements up from 15 companies to 21, driven by oil and gas suppliers needing certification, alongside a 148 per cent increase in devices calibrated.
  • Jan 2018Presents certification to the Woodlands Hospital and Guyana Defence Force medical laboratories under the National Laboratory Certification Programme.
  • Apr 2018GNBS attains its own ISO 9001:2015 certificate, one year after committing to it.
  • May 2018Works with the Energy Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago to develop a Safe To Work (STOW) certification programme for Guyana's oil and gas sector, covering health, safety and environmental requirements for contractors.
  • Jun 2018Hosts ASTM International's first standards road show in Guyana, for the construction sector.
  • TodayManaging Director and Consultant, CKB Enterprise Guyana. Listed on the CROSQ regional quality infrastructure database as a Conformity Assessment Body.
Why this matters to a supplier. Speaking as the regulator in January 2018, she set out the commercial reality plainly: “when the businesses register with the portal, under the oil and gas sector, to be a supplier, one of the first requirements is for them to be certified.” She was describing the demand from inside the body that met it. She now prepares businesses to meet it from the other side.

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.

REGISTRATION OPEN

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 WhatsApp
SCHEDULED

ISO 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 dates
SCHEDULED

QMS 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 dates
SCHEDULED

ISO 22000 Requirements

Three days, virtual, GCS-certified. For food production, processing, packaging, transport, storage, distribution, retail and catering, at any size.

Ask about dates
SERIES

The 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 session
FREE

The 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 added
BOOK

Consultancy and audit

Gap analysis, pre-assessment audit and systems optimisation can be booked directly. Durations are set per engagement.

Book online
In-person as well as virtual. Workshops have been delivered at the Centre for Local Business Development, 253-254 South Road, Georgetown. Closed sessions run on your own site anywhere in Guyana.

Start 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.

Book a consultation +592 684 1061 WhatsApp

CKB Enterprise  ·  Lot 16 Pike Street, Kitty, Georgetown, Guyana
ckenterprise2024@gmail.com  ·  +592 684 1061