Scheduling a Crisis Management Audit? Reasonable Request?

[Southern Cross]

As the result of some changes in the organization, I'm now the one tasked to put together the internal audit schedule for my geographical region. I've sent out a tentative schedule, but one of the other Quality Managers has come back to me with the comment that "We need to also review the Crisis procedures and process for each site and this should be part of the audit for all ANZ sites for 2018". Does this sound like a reasonable suggestion? I can see that we might end up treading the same ground as the Safety function..

 

[Sidney Vianna]

Does this sound like a reasonable suggestion? I can see that we might end up treading the same ground as the Safety function..

Not sure what you meant by the last sentence, so please explain.

As for "crisis procedure", I assume you mean crisis management process, something along the lines of business continuity planning (BCP). Internal audit schedules should always take into account the status and importance of the processes; so if there are reasons to believe that your BCP process needs to be assessed, yes, that is a good suggestion.

 

[Southern Cross]

Thanks for your input. I'll schedule BCP audits as you've suggested.

We're a chemical manufacturer, so the safety function is of utmost importance. For example, we hold on site some of the same chemicals that were the source of the explosion at Arkema's plant in Texas - the result of a power outage caused by Hurricane Harvey.