Auditor States "Shall have Procedure for Disposition of Records"

[Coury Ferguson]

Dear all,

I do need some advice about the disposition of record. We do have defined the disposition of record in procedure but auditor need us to provide the evidence of dispositon. It means that we have to make a record of disposition to state that we have disposed the record. Urgently need your advice.


Thanks a lot.

Holly

I agree with Andy's statement:

Buy a trash can, put the auditors name on it and fill it with records! Keep them just for him

Alternatively:

He's nuts, tell him to get a life, it's not a requirement and if he continues to pursue this kind of silliness, you'll ban him from your business and ask for a different auditor - seriously!

Andy

I agree with Sidney's advice

Sorry Holly, but I think you need advice on how to dispose of your auditor, instead....

and

There is a presumption of innocence, until you are PROVEN guilty. The burden is on the auditor to find EVIDENCE of an OBSOLETE or INADEQUATE REVISION document BEING USED. S/he CAN NOT give you a non-conformity for a hypothetical scenario with no evidence of that happening. This auditor of yours is quite something....

BTW, why do people rely on stamps to "designate" controlled documents? Another archaic, prehistoric, legacy garbage of antiquated dysfunctional quality systems that just consumes resources without adding any value to the process...Please think out of the "stamps" box

And for sure Randy's statement:

Evidence of disposition?

Show the dips&it an empty folder or file cabinet.

A pile of shredded paper might be "evidence" as well.

You need to rethink the Registrar or Auditor services, in my opinion.

 

[56flh]

We've set up the procedure as a spread sheet with the disposition indicated as recycle for all records that are eventually disposed.
Here's kind of a generic form:

RECORD: ISIR
STORAGE LOCATION: QA Office
HOW PROTECTED: File cabinet
HOW RETRIEVED: By item number
RETENTION TIME: 5 years
DISPOSITION: Recycle

We have secure recycle bins for all confidential records that are sent for shredding, and the receipt from the shredding company could be the proof that the disposition has been carried out (our auditor isn't that anal, we haven't needed to prove the disposition).

 

[Randy]

As far as I can figure the only time disposition should be a "real" issue might be if there were some customer or regulatory requirement attached to it. We might then need to follow the path.

But you know, once a document is disposed of, like buring or shredding, how can it be proven or disproven that the specific document is what is going up the smokestack or into the box? It comes to a certain point that the auditor needs to accept what he/she is being told.