(He he he… here we go again…
)
OK, as AndyN said,
there is no requirement for the auditor to be 'independent'… - as long as the assigned auditor is not directly involved in the development and implementation of the QMS in the process he is going to audit…

frust: you know guys, I was having a hard time why you cannot consider those scenarios as “independent”?)
…anyway, just to add (as quoted from another thread), ISO 19011 doesn't say anything about auditors not auditing their own work... ISO 9001 is very specific, but ISO 14001 doesn't prohibit it and neither does, OHSAS 18001, PAS 99, or BS 25999…
(whew... I hope it'll stop there...)