Internal Auditor Qualifications? Small Company

[cubix rube]

We are a small company (<25 employees), and as such, we have traditionally used an outside contractor to conduct our internal audits for ISO 9001. Last year we tried to do it ourselves and ran into concerns about possibly having audited our own work, so we're back to using a contractor, as a result. We have used the same guy for about 9 or 10 years now, however, this past December we were certified to the 13485 standard. He is a certified lead auditor for ISO 9001, a certified internal auditor for ISO 14000, and AS9100(?). He has worked in the past, for a 13485 certified company, but did not perform their audits.
In my mind, a certified lead auditor is trained in conducting a professional audit, to a known standard. As long as he has access to the particular standard (in this case, 13485), he should be OK, right??
Do you think I'll have a problem with proving his competence if I use him for our internal audit for 13485?

[AndyN]

In Reply to Parent Post by cubix rube

We are a small company (<25 employees), and as such, we have traditionally used an outside contractor to conduct our internal audits for ISO 9001. Last year we tried to do it ourselves and ran into concerns about possibly having audited our own work, so we're back to using a contractor, as a result. We have used the same guy for about 9 or 10 years now, however, this past December we were certified to the 13485 standard. He is a certified lead auditor for ISO 9001, a certified internal auditor for ISO 14000, and AS9100(?). He has worked in the past, for a 13485 certified company, but did not perform their audits.
In my mind, a certified lead auditor is trained in conducting a professional audit, to a known standard. As long as he has access to the particular standard (in this case, 13485), he should be OK, right??
Do you think I'll have a problem with proving his competence if I use him for our internal audit for 13485?

Well, have you tried evaluating his competence? There are auditors out there with all kinds of training etc. - I'm not suggesting this guy's one - but they shouldn't be left on their own to do an audit, IMHO!

Your best plan is to draw up some competency criteria and do an evaluation. He shouldn't find that peculiar or odd, indeed, he may jump at the chance to show you what he knows. Pull together some 'must haves', some 'could haves' and some 'nice to haves' in terms of what he should be able to demonstrate to you, and go for it!