Operational risk management audits

Comments have been made elsewhere in this book about transitions taking place in the practice of safety, one of which is combining the responsibility for occupational safety and health and environmental controls into one entity. That has occurred at a corporate level, at some locations of larger companies, and more frequently in the not-huge-and-smaller organizations where but one or two safety professionals may be employed. That poses the following question Practicably what is the purpose of an audit and what should a risk-based audit system encompass This chapter discusses  

On the Practice of Safety, Fourth Edition. Fred A. Manuefe. 

Good management practice requires that safety professionals who are to make or arrange for risk-based system audits obtain acceptance from personnel to whom counsel is given of a definition of an audit and what an audit is to accomplish. Several writers have published such definitions and outlined what information the audit should provide. Their views are helpful. 

In their book Safety Auditing A Management Tool, Donald W. Kase and Kay J. Wiese (1990), say  

Safety auditing, as we will develop it in this work, is a structured and detailed approach to reducing and controlling the seriousness of accidents. Safety auditing is a method whereby management can receive a continuing evaluation of its safety effectiveness, (xiii) 

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SCOPE OF SUBJECTS FOR AN OPERATIONS RISK MANAGEMENT AUDIT GUIDE... 

Audits are highly recommended as performance measures. For the not-large operation, particularly, operational risk management audits should be one of the several measures selected to evaluate performance. 

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