OHSAS 18001 - Requirements for Auditing Procedure

[buzzjaw]

OK guys I am after your guidance - I have been a bad forum member. I have been rarely active and only occasionally read this forum, and here I am asking for your expert advice. Whatever the results I will try hard to be a more active member of this forum in future.

I have been posed the following question in relation to OHSAS 18001. Please can you tell me what answer you would give and why.

Question:
For an effective audit program, audit procedures should address among other things:

A. Who will be responsible for nonconformity corrective actions
B. How effectiveness of operational controls are to be verified
C. How conformance to all clauses of OHSAS 18001 are to be verified
D. All the above
E. Only B & C

 

[buzzjaw]

Must be a tough question! I've pondered it for a few days and I'm no closer, but thought some bright spark would be able to answer it.

 

[Randy]

"E"

"A" is not relevant to an audit program, NC's can come from areas other than audits

"D" is obvious if "A" is excluded


So what test was this from, a Lead Auditor course?

 

[qusys]

OK guys I am after your guidance - I have been a bad forum member. I have been rarely active and only occasionally read this forum, and here I am asking for your expert advice. Whatever the results I will try hard to be a more active member of this forum in future.

I have been posed the following question in relation to OHSAS 18001. Please can you tell me what answer you would give and why.

Question:
For an effective audit program, audit procedures should address among other things:

A. Who will be responsible for nonconformity corrective actions
B. How effectiveness of operational controls are to be verified
C. How conformance to all clauses of OHSAS 18001 are to be verified
D. All the above
E. Only B & C

To me, most acceptable answer is D. You are speaking about audit procedure and all the items you are mentioning could be included in it to make effective audit program, because you are establishing precise criteria for the activity where several members are involved ( auditees, auditors, guides, mgmt) with different responsibility and accountability.
Could you give addtional details for the purpose of this question?

 

[buzzjaw]

Duh! If you knew how long I agonised over that question and the obvious answer completely eluded me. My wife, with no knowledge of the subject, but who knows me only too well, said "are you sure you aren't looking for something more complicated than it's asking for?".

Yes Randy, the question came from a Lead Auditor test.

Must remember to K.I.S.S (keep it simple stupid).

Thank you so much and I will honour my promise to participate more.

 

[buzzjaw]

Oh, by the way QUSYS, the answer is not D - that's the answer I gave and got it wrong. I believe Randy's explanation to be correct.

 

[qusys]

Oh, by the way QUSYS, the answer is not D - that's the answer I gave and got it wrong. I believe Randy's explanation to be correct.

I tried to follow experience. However, we should also undestand the scope of the question. If we want to be precise, I think that the question is not so well posed.
OHSAS 18001 does not foresee "documented" procedure. So, my idea was based on our experience, to document the responsibility for all the item of the audit activity. But is ok...I agree with you. Just for sharing different perspective.see you

 

[Randy]

Oh, by the way QUSYS, the answer is not D - that's the answer I gave and got it wrong. I believe Randy's explanation to be correct.

I'm pretty sure it's correct seeing as I may have written the question a few years ago.

 

[buzzjaw]

Nice one Randy. I got feedback today and the answer was correct.

You may also be able to explain one which I got correct, but I still don't understand why.

The question is:
A facility must be in complete regulatory compliance at the time of an OHS audit to demonstrate / maintain conformance to OHSAS 18001 specifications.


The answer is False, but I don't understand why.

If you write a policy that commits you to meeting your legal obligations as required by 4.2 of OHSAS 18001 and then fail to comply during an audit, surely you are non-compliant with your own system and the standard.

Please enlighten me if you can.

 

[immaya08]

we're talking about 'internal audit' here, right? and these non conformances (indicated in item A) are coming from internal audit results? It should be D.

from the standpoint of ISO 19011:2011, specifically (6.7) - Conducting audit follow up, "As appropriate, the auditee should keep the person managing the audit programme and the audit team informed of the status of these actions" - actions referring to corrections, corrective actions, etc.

as part of the organization, we are to help management in 'managing these non conformances, rather than just controlling them. part of that is determining the point person (assigned by management or whom ever is in command) who will be responsible and accountable for addressing the non conformance.

but, if these non conformances are from other sources (other than internal audit) then, answer should be E.

Happy new year!