This matter has gotten me in a bit of trouble with a boss above my boss. I don't manage the internal audit program here, but I am considered an internal audit 'guru' because I managed the internal audit program at my last company which is much larger than the current company.
One of the internal auditors here says she cannot complete the Management Review Process Audit because she inputs data into the Management System that is used for evaluation of supplier performance & quality. She believes that her input into a subject that is reviewed in management review is a conflict of interest.
She has gotten this 'big boss' to agree. His comment is that she knows everything about supplier performance & quality evaluation and therefore cannot ask open minded questions about the management review of supplier performance & quality because she already 'knows it all'.
My take is that she enters data and prints reports that are used by the people who do the management review. Why can't she ask open minded questions about how that information is used in management review? She doesn't review supplier performance & quality - she enters the data and prints the reports for someone else to review.
Would the 'official' ISO9001 policy be that an auditor has to be completely untainted by any contact with a process in order to be considered independent enough to audit it? This place is less than 100 people and has 6 auditors. None of them are likely to be independent under those circumstances.
Now the guy who schedules the audits wants me to finish it. Unfortunately I attend the Management Review meetings, am involved in decisions, and manage the documentation of the process. I am less independent of that process than the assigned auditor. The big boss is pissed at me because I disagreed with him. Am I wrong?
One of the internal auditors here says she cannot complete the Management Review Process Audit because she inputs data into the Management System that is used for evaluation of supplier performance & quality. She believes that her input into a subject that is reviewed in management review is a conflict of interest.
She has gotten this 'big boss' to agree. His comment is that she knows everything about supplier performance & quality evaluation and therefore cannot ask open minded questions about the management review of supplier performance & quality because she already 'knows it all'.
My take is that she enters data and prints reports that are used by the people who do the management review. Why can't she ask open minded questions about how that information is used in management review? She doesn't review supplier performance & quality - she enters the data and prints the reports for someone else to review.
Would the 'official' ISO9001 policy be that an auditor has to be completely untainted by any contact with a process in order to be considered independent enough to audit it? This place is less than 100 people and has 6 auditors. None of them are likely to be independent under those circumstances.
Now the guy who schedules the audits wants me to finish it. Unfortunately I attend the Management Review meetings, am involved in decisions, and manage the documentation of the process. I am less independent of that process than the assigned auditor. The big boss is pissed at me because I disagreed with him. Am I wrong?

