Re: Internal audit- What if performed by consultant
There will be no problem having a consultant do the internal audits, as long as they are competent! In any lab there's going to be a degree of technical issues which are part of the system, measurement uncertainty being one of them. Clearly, the auditor must be familiar with them. Now, Big Jim is somewhat correct in his comment, but for the wrong reason!
If a consultant wrote the manual, procedures etc, that's not 'auditing their own work'....it's the implementation they are auditing! But, if the consultant has done much of the technical work - the calculation of the measurement uncertainties, previously mentioned, then that would be 'their own work'.
It's common for labs to have outsider help with internal audits, since labs are often staffed by just a few people and can't simply arrange this type of thing around their (many) other duties