INACAL / OSINERGMIN Audit Preparation for Inspection Companies
A INACAL / OSINERGMIN audit runs in 7 stages, beginning with file form da-002 with annexes and the fee through inacal's dasgac platform,.. Instituto Nacional de Calidad (INACAL), Dirección de Acreditación, as the national accreditation body; Organismo Supervisor de la Inversión en Energía y Minería (OSINERGMIN) as the energy and mining regulator; Ministerio de Energía y Minas (MINEM) as the rule-maker tests the system by sampling finished work.
Peru is the clearest regional case of accreditation made compulsory by regulation rather than chosen for marketing. INACAL's Dirección de Acreditación accredits inspection bodies against NTP-ISO/IEC 17020, using application form DA-002 filed through INACAL's management platform, with the fee calculated on the number of procedures in scope. OSINERGMIN then layers a sector registry on top. Under Decreto Supremo N° 001-2022-EM, periodic hermeticity inspection of buried tanks and piping storing liquid fuels and OPDH may only be performed by inspection bodies accredited by INACAL and entered in OSINERGMIN's Registro de Empresas Inspectoras, with the inscription procedure approved by Resolución de Consejo Directivo N° 151-2024-OS/CD. Without both, the certificate the site needs has no standing. What separates firms that clear an audit from firms that collect findings is not the quality of the documentation but whether it describes what actually happens.
Source: Ley N° 30224, Ley que crea el Sistema Nacional para la Calidad y el Instituto Nacional de Calidad, published 11 July 2014, with INACAL operational from 1 June 2015 having absorbed INDECOPI's Servicio Nacional de Acreditación, Servicio Nacional de Metrología and the Comisión de Normalización; INACAL accreditation pages including "¿Cómo obtener la Acreditación?" listing form DA-002 for inspection bodies and the DASGAC platform, and the Organismos de Inspección page citing NTP-ISO/IEC 17020, accessed August 2026; OSINERGMIN "Inspección Periódica de Hermeticidad" page citing Decreto Supremo N° 001-2022-EM, which supersedes DS N° 064-2009-EM, and Resolución de Consejo Directivo N° 151-2024-OS/CD, accessed August 2026; the text of the hermeticity norm read directly, including the definitions of Entidad Acreditada and Certificado de Inspección de Hermeticidad, the 0.1 gallons per hour leak index and the thirty-day filing period; OSINERGMIN supervision guidance for LPG direct consumers and distribution networks, version 1.0, May 2022, read directly, citing DS N° 065-2008-EM Article 19, DS N° 001-2007-EM Article 9, NTP 321.123 clauses 5.1.1 to 5.1.15, ASME Section VIII Division 1, API 510 and NB-23; MINEM DS N° 024-2016-EM, Reglamento de Seguridad y Salud Ocupacional en Minería, as modified by DS N° 023-2017-EM and DS N° 034-2023-EM. No NTP adoption of ISO 9712 was found, so none is cited.
| Stage | What happens | What it tests |
|---|---|---|
| Stage 1 | File form DA-002 with annexes and the fee through INACAL's DASGAC platform, defining the scope by inspection activity and normative. | Where the paperwork is tested against itself |
| Stage 2 | INACAL reviews the documentation against the general, specific and complementary accreditation criteria for NTP-ISO/IEC 17020 | Where the paperwork is tested against practice |
| Stage 3 | An evaluation team is appointed and carries out documentary review, on-site evaluation and witnessing of inspections for each activity claimed | Where the paperwork is tested against practice |
| Stage 4 | Close non-conformities within INACAL's timescale with objective evidence | Where the paperwork is tested against practice |
| Stage 5 | INACAL decision and issue of the accreditation certificate with the approved scope | Where the paperwork is tested against practice |
| Stage 6 | For regulated fuel work, apply separately to OSINERGMIN for inscription in the Registro de Empresas Inspectoras under RCD N° 151-2024-OS/CD | Where the paperwork is tested against practice |
| Stage 7 | Periodic INACAL supervision during the accreditation term, and reaccreditation before expiry | Where the paperwork is tested against practice |
| Renewal | INACAL does not publish the accreditation term or the supervision interval on its public accreditation pages, so confirm both in the current accreditation criteria before committing to a client; do not quote a number from another country's practice. What is fixed sits on the regulated side. For buried tank systems, the first hermeticity certificate is required before the system enters service, and thereafter the periodicity is set by the Índice de Riesgo assessment carried out for that specific installation. The inspection report must be submitted to OSINERGMIN within thirty calendar days of the test, and the hermeticity test itself must detect a leak rate of at least 0.1 gallons per hour (0.3785 litres per hour). | Diarised from the certificate date, not the last audit |
How long does INACAL / OSINERGMIN audit preparation take?
Document work — the written practice, procedures and quality manual — takes weeks. What cannot be compressed is documented experience and records history: on-the-job hours accrue in real time, and calibration and certification history cannot be back-filled. Firms that start when the audit is scheduled rather than announced clear it without findings.
What does Instituto Nacional de Calidad (INACAL), Dirección de Acreditación, as the national accreditation body; Organismo Supervisor de la Inversión en Energía y Minería (OSINERGMIN) as the energy and mining regulator; Ministerio de Energía y Minas (MINEM) as the rule-maker look at first?
Records, not manuals. A manual states intent; records show practice. The usual opening move is to take a completed job and trace it back to the technician's certification, the instrument's calibration, the approved procedure and the report — and see whether all four reconcile.
What are the most common INACAL / OSINERGMIN findings?
The firm holds INACAL accreditation but is not entered in OSINERGMIN's Registro de Empresas Inspectoras, so the hermeticity certificates it issues are rejected on supervision, Accredited scope does not name the specific normative document the client is relying on, so the certificate falls outside scope even though the method itself is covered, Risk-index report and hermeticity report not filed with OSINERGMIN within thirty calendar days of the test, LPG stationary tank accepted on the nameplate alone, with no Certificado de Conformidad from an INACAL-accredited certification body and no U-1 or U-1A data report. Almost all of them are evidence problems rather than capability problems: the work was done correctly and the proof was not kept, or was kept somewhere the firm could not retrieve during the audit.
Can a consultant attend the INACAL / OSINERGMIN audit?
Yes, and it changes the outcome. Someone who has sat through the same audit at other firms answers in the auditor's own terms, produces the right record without a search, and stops a clarification turning into a finding. The firm still owns every answer — the consultant does not speak for it.
What happens after a INACAL / OSINERGMIN finding?
A corrective action with a deadline, and evidence of closure at the next audit. Repeat findings are treated far more seriously than first ones, because they show the corrective-action system itself is not working.
Does INACAL / OSINERGMIN require a pre-audit or gap assessment?
Not as a requirement, but the arithmetic favours it: a gap assessment finds the same evidence problems the auditor would, without the finding attached, and while there is still time to fix them. Firms entering their first INACAL / OSINERGMIN audit blind typically collect findings that a sampling exercise would have caught.
What the auditor asks to see
- Formulario DA-002, solicitud de acreditación para organismos de inspección, with annexes, filed through INACAL's DASGAC platform, plus proof of payment calculated on the number of procedures
- Management system manual and procedures conforming to NTP-ISO/IEC 17020, with the type A, B or C declaration and the impartiality risk analysis
- Práctica escrita to ASNT SNT-TC-1A signed by the Level III, plus each technician's certification file, examination records and current vision records
- Inscription file for OSINERGMIN's Registro de Empresas Inspectoras under RCD N° 151-2024-OS/CD, citing the INACAL accreditation
- Certificado de Inspección de Hermeticidad del STE and the accompanying Informe de Índice de Riesgo for buried tank systems
- Certificado de Conformidad for LPG stationary tanks issued by an INACAL-accredited certification body, or the manufacturer's ASME Section VIII data report U-1 or U-1A signed by an authorised inspector
- Evidence that any LPG tank repair or alteration was carried out to API 510 or to NB-23, the National Board Inspection Code, endorsed by an accredited inspection body
- Equipment calibration certificates traceable to INACAL's national metrology service
- Authorisation from the Instituto Peruano de Energía Nuclear (IPEN) for industrial radiography sources and operators
Findings to close before the audit
- The firm holds INACAL accreditation but is not entered in OSINERGMIN's Registro de Empresas Inspectoras, so the hermeticity certificates it issues are rejected on supervision
- Accredited scope does not name the specific normative document the client is relying on, so the certificate falls outside scope even though the method itself is covered
- Risk-index report and hermeticity report not filed with OSINERGMIN within thirty calendar days of the test
- LPG stationary tank accepted on the nameplate alone, with no Certificado de Conformidad from an INACAL-accredited certification body and no U-1 or U-1A data report
- Tank repairs signed off without evidence the work followed API 510 or NB-23, and without an accredited inspection body's endorsement
- The employer's written practice names methods the Level III is not himself certified in, leaving Level II certifications in those methods without a valid basis
- Technician files show training hours but no documented supervised experience, which is what SNT-TC-1A actually requires
- Radiography performed without a current IPEN authorisation for the source, the operator, or the transport of the source
Related: the INACAL / OSINERGMIN overview, outsourced ASNT Level III cover, written practice development, NDT procedure development, a programme gap assessment, interim Level III cover.