Records Retention Schedule for COVENIN / SENCAMER
COVENIN / SENCAMER names this requirement as "Training records from a centre meeting COVENIN 2967:2021 requirements, supporting the training hours claimed". The QA manager owns it, and a contracted Level III can author and sign it.
The finding auditors record against this document is: Vision records missing, or older than twelve months, for technicians on active assignment. COVENIN is the designation carried by the Venezuelan national standard, not a live commission. The Comisión Venezolana de Normas Industriales was created in 1958, and authority to issue COVENIN standards now sits with SENCAMER. For an NDT service provider the operative document is COVENIN 1999:2021, the third revision of the requirements for qualification and certification of NDT personnel, which completely replaces COVENIN 1999:1999 and was revised by technical committee CT22 Ensayos No Destructivos under SENCAMER's guidelines, aligning Venezuelan requirements with ISO 9712. COVENIN 2967:2021 covers NDT training and qualification centres. SENCAMER also administers the NORVEN conformity mark and the accreditation of conformity assessment bodies, including inspection bodies and testing laboratories.
Source: SENCAMER standards catalogue record for COVENIN 1999:2021, "Requisitos para la calificación y certificación de personal en ensayos no destructivos", third revision, completely replacing COVENIN 1999:1999, revised by technical committee CT22 Ensayos No Destructivos under SENCAMER guidelines and aligned with ISO 9712; catalogue record for COVENIN 2967:2021 on NDT training and qualification centres; ISBN record 978-980-06-2366-4 for the COVENIN publication on qualification and certification of NDT personnel; Ley Orgánica del Sistema Venezolano para la Calidad, Gaceta Oficial N° 37.555 of 23 October 2002, establishing the standardisation, metrology, accreditation, certification, testing and technical regulation subsystems; SENCAMER public statements on the COVENIN corpus (3,921 standards through 54 technical committees), 34 technical regulations, the NORVEN mark and more than 40 accredited conformity assessment bodies; documented history of the standardisation function passing from COVENIN (Decreto 501, 1958) through FONDONORMA and SENORCA to SENCAMER, with SENCAMER assuming the national standardisation body role in July 2020; PDVSA IR-S-14 Integridad Mecánica, part of the PDVSA engineering risk manual, covering design, manufacture, installation, testing, inspection, monitoring and maintenance of critical equipment. SENCAMER's own servers were unreachable from this session in August 2026 and the full text of COVENIN 1999:2021 was not read, so no clause reference is given.
| Item | What applies | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Regime | COVENIN Venezuelan Standards and the Servicio Desconcentrado de Normalización, Calidad, Metrología y Reglamentos Técnicos (SENCAMER) | Enforced by SENCAMER, the national standardisation, quality, metrology and technical regulation service, which is the current issuer of COVENIN standards and operates the accreditation subsystem under the Ley Orgánica del Sistema Venezolano para la Calidad |
| Document | Records Retention Schedule | how long each record is kept, where, and who can retrieve it during an audit |
| Owner | the QA manager | The signature an auditor traces back |
| Where it is checked | Documentary review and on-site evaluation by SENCAMER, including witnessing of inspections in the claimed scope; Close non-conformities and. | Usually against a sampled job, not in isolation |
| Common failure | Certificates issued against COVENIN 1999:1999, which COVENIN 1999:2021 completely replaced, still in circulation and being treated as current | The gap between the manual and the job file |
What must a records retention schedule contain under COVENIN / SENCAMER?
It has to satisfy COVENIN / SENCAMER as SENCAMER, the national standardisation, quality, metrology and technical regulation service, which is the current issuer of COVENIN standards and operates the accreditation subsystem under the Ley Orgánica del Sistema Venezolano para la Calidad enforces it: how long each record is kept, where, and who can retrieve it during an audit. The test is not completeness on paper but traceability — an auditor picks a finished job and works backwards to this document, so anything it claims must be demonstrable on that job.
Who signs the records retention schedule for COVENIN / SENCAMER?
The QA manager. Because this regime accepts employer-based certification, that role can be filled by a contracted Level III rather than a staff appointment, provided they are qualified in the methods they sign for.
How does a COVENIN / SENCAMER auditor test this document?
By sampling. They take a completed job, find the technicians and equipment used, and trace each back through this document to the evidence behind it. A document that reads well but cannot survive that trace is the most common finding across every regime, not just this one.
How long must COVENIN / SENCAMER records be kept?
COVENIN 1999:2021 aligns Venezuelan personnel certification with ISO 9712, whose cycle is five years with a single renewal and recertification at ten years; treat that as the working assumption but confirm it against the text of COVENIN 1999:2021 itself, which could not be read directly from SENCAMER's catalogue server. Where the contract runs on employer certification instead, the interval is whatever the written practice states, commonly five years for Levels I and II with annual vision checks. SENCAMER accreditation cycle lengths are not published on its public pages, so do not quote one. Retention is set by the regime and by the client contract above it, and the longer of the two governs. Firms that set one retention period for everything and document it fare better at audit than firms tracking different periods per record type and losing track.
Does a generic template satisfy COVENIN / SENCAMER?
No. A downloaded template describes a generic firm, and the first question an auditor asks is whether the document describes THIS firm — its methods, its equipment, its people, its actual workflow. Templates are a starting structure; the content has to be the firm's own or the trace fails immediately.
What happens if this document is missing at a COVENIN / SENCAMER audit?
It is a finding, and depending on the regime it can suspend the certificate rather than merely generate a corrective action. The related finding auditors record most often is: Certificates issued against COVENIN 1999:1999, which COVENIN 1999:2021 completely replaced, still in circulation and being treated as current
Where this sits in the COVENIN / SENCAMER evidence pack
- Certificados de calificación y certificación per COVENIN 1999:2021, by method and level, where the contract calls up the national scheme
- Práctica escrita to ASNT SNT-TC-1A signed by the Level III, with education, training, experience and examination requirements per method, where the contract runs on the employer model
- Training records from a centre meeting COVENIN 2967:2021 requirements, supporting the training hours claimed
- Written NDT procedures approved by the Level III and traceable to the code the client cites: ASME BPVC Section V, API 1104, AWS D1.1 or the applicable PDVSA specification
- Vision examination records covering near vision and colour differentiation, dated within the last twelve months
- Equipment calibration and verification records traceable to SENCAMER's metrology subsystem
- Accreditation certificate and annexed scope where the firm claims SENCAMER-accredited inspection body status
- Radiation-protection authorisation for gamma radiography sources, operators and source transport
- Mechanical integrity records where the client's system follows PDVSA's mechanical integrity guidance for critical equipment such as storage tanks, piping, pumps and safety systems
Personnel certification context
Mixed, and the mix is commercially decisive. COVENIN 1999:2021 sets out a national qualification and certification scheme aligned with ISO 9712, which is a central rather than employer model, and COVENIN 2967:2021 governs the training and qualification centres that feed it. But a functioning SENCAMER-accredited ISO/IEC 17024 body certifying NDT personnel could not be verified, and in practice the PDVSA supply chain has long run on employer certification written against ASNT SNT-TC-1A, with ISO 9712 certificates from foreign bodies for staff who also work internationally. An outsourced Level III can sign the written practice; whether the client accepts that in place of COVENIN 1999 certification is a contract question, so settle it in the tender documents before mobilising.
Related: the COVENIN / SENCAMER overview, outsourced ASNT Level III cover, written practice development, NDT procedure development, a programme gap assessment, interim Level III cover.