Two bodies, two papers
In Malaysia the organisation that tests a sanitary ware product and the organisation that issues the certificate a project asks for are not the same organisation. That single fact explains most of the confusion in a Malaysian compliance file. A supplier sends a certificate, the project says it is not the certificate they need, and both parties are describing the same product accurately.
The testing and certification body is SIRIM QAS International. The certificate of approval, the COA, is issued by CIDB. Between those two sentences sits the entire administrative distance a buyer has to cross, and it is crossed by holding both documents rather than one.
What SIRIM QAS does
SIRIM QAS International is accredited to test and inspect ceramic tile and sanitary wares, and to issue certification on the basis of that work. That is a statement about capability and scope: the body can carry out the testing and can certify the result for this product category.
What the supplier receives at the end of that process is a certification or a test conclusion. It is evidence about the product: what was tested, against which standard, with what result. It is the technical half of the Malaysian file, and it is the half a factory can usually produce, because the testing happens on the product rather than on the project.
What CIDB issues
The COA comes from CIDB. The sequence is that certification by a body such as SIRIM is followed by the issue of a certificate of approval by the regulator. The document that a project’s consultant or a main contractor will ask to see is that COA, and it is not the same piece of paper as the SIRIM certification, even when the two refer to the same product and the same test.
This is the point where suppliers and buyers talk past each other most often. A factory that has done the testing has done the difficult part. It has not, by doing so, produced the document the project is asking for. Presenting the SIRIM certificate as though it were the COA ends with the project rejecting a valid document because it is the wrong document.
The Fourth Schedule requirement
The reason any of this matters on a project is the Fourth Schedule to the CIDB Act 520, as amended in 2011. It provides that only building materials that hold standard compliance certification — PPS, Perakuan Pematuhan Standard — may be used in construction works. That is the legal hinge. It converts a document question into a question of whether the material can be used at all.
Read the requirement for what it is. It is a condition on the material, verified through a certification route, and the COA is the document through which the regulator confirms the position. A project that accepts material without it is carrying a risk that does not disappear if the material performs well. Performance and permission are two different things, and an inspection does not usually ask how the product behaved, it asks for the paper.
Where a Malaysian file usually breaks
Having watched buyers assemble these files, the failures cluster in a small number of places.
- A test report from a laboratory that is not the recognised body, offered as though it were the certification.
- A certification whose scope covers a different product or a different model from the one being supplied.
- A COA that exists but names an entity or a project other than the one in front of the reviewer.
- Documents with no revision or issue information, so a reviewer cannot tell whether the copy in hand is current.
- A file assembled after the material has shipped, when the only remedy left is time.
None of these are exotic. Each is a scope or a sequence mistake, and each is cheaper to catch at enquiry stage than at delivery. The scope mistakes are the ones worth dwelling on, because they look like success: a certificate is produced, it is genuine, and it does not cover your model.
The order to ask in
Ask in the order the documents are produced, not the order they are filed.
- First, which standard the product has to be assessed against for this application, and who is entitled to assess it.
- Second, whether the certification held names the exact model being supplied, or a family that includes it.
- Third, who holds the COA, in whose name it was issued, and what it covers.
- Fourth, what the project itself requires on top of that — because a consultant can ask for more than the regulation does, and often does.
Asked in that order, the answers build a file. Asked in the reverse order, they produce a stack of documents whose relationships nobody can reconstruct six months later.
What we put in a Malaysian file
We are a manufacturer, and the part of this chain we control is the product evidence. That means the test reports, the technical drawings and the declarations that a certification body needs in order to do its work, plus the certificates we hold for the models concerned.
Where a document in this chain is held but not published on the site, it is provided as certificate documents on request. It is not offered as a download, and there is no PDF sitting behind a link. Ask for it by model and by market, and you will get the document or a straight statement that it does not exist for that model yet. That is a slower answer than a folder of logos and a much more useful one.
What we will not do is describe one of these documents as another. A SIRIM certification is not a COA, and a COA is not a test report. If a supplier tells you they are the same thing, the useful question is which one they actually hold.
If you are the importer, not the project
Importers carry a different version of the same risk. The project asks them for a COA, they ask the factory for compliance documents, and the two requests use different words for different things. The fix is to send the project’s requirement to the factory verbatim, in writing, with the model codes attached, rather than summarising it as “Malaysia certification”.
Summaries are where scope is lost. A requirement that names a standard, a body and a document type becomes “they need certification” in one email, and comes back as something that satisfies the summary and not the requirement. The same discipline applies in reverse: when a factory sends documents, read the scope line before the logo.
Frequently asked questions
Is SIRIM certification the same as a CIDB COA?
No. SIRIM QAS tests, inspects and certifies ceramic tile and sanitary wares. The certificate of approval is issued by CIDB, following certification. They are two documents produced by two bodies, and a project asking for the COA is not asking for the SIRIM certificate.
What does the Fourth Schedule of the CIDB Act require?
As amended in 2011, it provides that only building materials holding standard compliance certification, PPS, may be used in construction works. In practice that makes the certification route a condition of use rather than a marketing advantage, which is why the document set matters before delivery.
Can you send your CIDB or SIRIM documents now?
We provide them as certificate documents on request rather than as downloads. Give us the model codes and the market, and we will confirm what exists for those models. Where a document is not available yet, we will say so rather than send something adjacent and let you discover the gap later.
Does a test report from another laboratory count?
That is a question for the body that issues the certification and for the project’s consultant, not for the supplier. What we can tell you is which reports exist for which model and who produced them. Whether a given report is accepted in place of certification should be confirmed against the current official guidance before you rely on it.
When in the programme should the file be assembled?
Before the purchase order, not before delivery. Scope problems are cheap to fix while the model can still be changed and expensive once the container is on the water. If the certification route is unclear, the enquiry stage is the moment to ask which document the project will actually require.
Do all 89 models carry the same Malaysian documents?
Assume nothing by range. Certification scope is set model by model or family by family, so the answer depends on the specific codes in your order. Send the list and the question comes back as a per-model answer, which is the only version useful to a reviewer.
Related on this site
Documents and certificates
- Certificates and the markets each one covers
- Catalogues, drawings and published test reports
- Ask for the documents a project requires
Related reading
- Selling toilets into Saudi Arabia under SASO
- How to read a sanitary ware spec sheet
- UK Toilets: CE, UKCA and the Water Fittings Rules