Auditor Confidentiality vs. Liability

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G

Geoff Withnell

#22
p.s. I thought being a quality auditor would be some kind of nice, low risk occupation... silly me.
Don't worry, we are all behind you - hiding:lol:

In all seriousness, I applaud your actions. Lots of relatively new folks would just blow this issue off, "not my problem". :applause:

Geoff Withnell
 
K

Ka Pilo

#23
Hi, forum: I'd be interested in your reaction to this hypothetical:

As part of the ISO9001 requirement for compliance to regulatory and customer requirements, let's say hypothetically I audit a chemical storage area. I see some chemicals stored, and look up the MSDS, and find that some chemicals with a potential explosion hazard are being improperly handled, plus being stored very near some improperly stored flammable materials... are you with me? Imminent potential of a major disaster. Could happen in 20 years, could happen in 20 minutes.

I am under confidentiality to the company, my certifying body, and the consulting company that I am sub-contracting for.

However, I've hypothetically uncovered a situation which is an imminent safety danger. Of course, I would hypothetically communicate this to management first.

What would be my hypothetical responsibility to report a situation like this to the local authorities, ex: fire marshal, EPA or OSHA?

If the company decides not to fix it, and there is a catastrophe, there will be plenty of finger pointing and the argument can be made that I, as an agent of the company, could be sued at some point by some grieving widow, or even end up in jail if it is later discovered that laws were violated and I detected the situation and did not report it.

However, it would be outside my confidentiality agreement, as an agent of the company to do so.

So, what would you do.... hypothetically...?
I think the right of the people to information on matters of public concern must be recognized. But said right must be subjected to statutory limitations. Perhaps the important and challenging thing is to achieve balance in a confidentiality agreement.
 

Jen Kirley

Quality and Auditing Expert
Staff member
Admin
#24
I think the trainer's point of view was that we were doing a conformance audit (to ISO 14001 requirements) and not a compliance audit (to legislation and regulations) and that such a finding was (a) outside of the scope of the audit and (b) who was to say that we were experts in the field.
I do appreciate your trainer's viewpoint, but sometimes you just know...

 

optomist1

A Sea of Statistics
Trusted Information Resource
#27
Hi Jim,

That was my attempt at scorching sarcasm, I should have resorted to the sarcasm tag.....I fortunately or unfortunately (depending on the matter) have intimate knowledge of OSHA as well as their state incarnations. For the most part they have a tough job....

Marty
 

Jen Kirley

Quality and Auditing Expert
Staff member
Admin
#28
Great Post....Excellent photo....who or what the heck is OSHA??
I can't take credit for it. I found it in the Post Attachments List (see the green button in the header) when I was looking for the picture of the guy whose welding face shield was a comics page. I also found this one.



But I have digressed, I have strayed from the topic and I should stop now.
 
J

JShell55

#30
Update:

My patience appears to have paid off, I toured the place this morning and the flammable material has been removed from the area thank goodness, which means that perhaps I was able to communicate the seriousness of the situation with just the right amount of urgency, but not melodrama, and also they were cooperative.

The root cause of the problem still needs to be identified and remedied, and there is probably some introspection needed. I will leave that up to them to figure out.

This whole situation was educational at least. Since I documented that they removed the flammable material perhaps that leaves me slightly less "exposed", as a lawyer might say.
 
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