Ultimate Accountability

The senior executive delegates some of his authority to lower levels within the organization, as well as some level of responsibility and a degree of accountability. However, ultimate accountability lies with him, as he is ultimately accountable for what happens within the plant, even though he has entrusted others to be diligent in the execution of their duties. 

The higher up the organizational structure and the higher the level of authority, the more the responsibility is and the more the accountability is. This is why one must caution when stating that everyone is responsible for safety. Everyone is responsible for safety, but the responsibility (and accompanying accountability) differs from level to level within the company, depending on authority. One cannot be held responsible and consequently accountable for something over which one does not have authority. 

Safety departments cannot be held accountable for the safety of employees over whom they do not have authority. Everybody is responsible for safety within his or her area of responsibility and has appropriate authority. Top management is responsible for all the departments, people, and resources reporting to them, and middle management likewise. Employees are also responsible for safety within their sphere of authority. 

Setting levels of authority, responsibility, and accountability must ensure that the levels of responsibility and accountability correspond to the level of authority. If a 

The Health and Safety Executive (2005) emphasizes this point  

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The FDA is headed by the Commissioner of Food and Dmgs. This position is not a Cabiaet-level office but falls within the PubHc Health Service (PHS), a division within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The post of FDA Commissioner is subject to HHS pohtical clearance and Senate confirmation, and the Commissioner is ultimately accountable to HHS, Congress, and the President of the United States. The Commissioner has a staff to assist ia poHcy making and several deputy commissioners to oversee operation of ah. the subordinate units. FDA has six regional offices within the country, each responsible for a section of the country, and 21 district offices. Persons with technical background typicahy work ia one of FDA s chemistry laboratories or as investigators or consumer safety officers. 

Dkect synthesis is the preparative method that ultimately accounts for most of the commercial siUcon hydride production. This is the synthesis of halosilanes by the dkect reaction of a halogen or haUde with siUcon metal, siUcon dioxide, siUcon carbide, or metal sihcide without an intervening chemical step or reagent. Trichlorosilane is produced by the reaction of hydrogen chloride and siUcon, ferrosiUcon, or calcium sihcide with or without a copper catalyst (82,83). Standard purity is produced in a static bed at 400—900°C. 

A last conclusion is that thermodynamics as the ultimate accountant of the conversion and storage of energy and matter can provide the fundamental tools to assess to what extent an industry and even an economy is sustainable. 

The business owner of a particular system is ultimately accountable for the electronic retention of business data. Support groups are often delegated responsibility for the electronic record retention of technical data such as operating systems, source code, configuration records, and any other software necessary to operate the application itself, including supporting documentation for these components. 

A clear indication of who the key decision makers are, who has ultimate accountability for safety and for ruling on the recommendations of the CRM team. 

Without a clear chain of command ultimate responsibility for clinical safety can be blurred. Dealing with a legal challenge is not the time to begin ascertaining accountability. Any organisation developing an SMS needs to ask, who is ultimately accountable for safety Who decides whether a product can go live Who decides whether or not a costly, safety-related defect is fixed ... 

The policy should set out how the SMS will be governed and who is ultimately accountable for the conclusions drawn. 

The safety and health of employees at the workplace is the ultimate responsibility of the management of the organization. Even though it is generally accepted that all share a role in safety, the ultimate accountability lies with all levels of the leadership. With this in mind, the implementation of a safety management system with the intent of changing the safety culture can only be successful if initiated, led, and supported by all management. 

The function of all safety departments and personnel should be to guide, educate, train, and motivate all levels of management, workers, and unions in the techniques of accident and disease prevention, and to advise and coordinate the safety system (GETMAC). This should be a staff function and not a line function (see Figure 5.1). All employees have some safety responsibility, but management, senior and line, has ultimate safety authority, and therefore is ultimately accountable. The safety department cannot, and should not, be held accountable for the safety performance of an organization. This has been stated by a number of safety authors, yet safety departments traditionally drift back to managing the safety of others. 

For a CSO to be effective, he or she will need to be given dedicated time, resources, and the necessary authority to carry out his or her responsibilities. CSOs should have direct access, when necessary, to the senior authorities who are ultimately accountable to the public. 

Accordingly, top leaders are ultimately accountable for chemical safety and security. See the section on Guidance on Assigning Responsibility and Accountability for more information. 

As you must know by now there are many common threads that run through the chapters within this book. First, management is ultimately accountable and responsible for its workforce s safety and health on the job. A key to an effective safety and health effort is the implementation of the many facets of management techniques for safety and health, the least of which is planning and an organized approach. It is imperative that you must identify your problem areas (hazards) and make an honest effort to address them or control them in some way. 

Safety responsibility. Make a policy statement that confirms that everyone has an individual responsibility for the safety of their own actions and that managers are accountable for the safety performance of the activities, products, services, etc., in their charge. Flow down to departmental expositions who is ultimately accountable for safety and how that accountability is delegated. 

Regulators around the world are increasingly focusing on the most senior level in an organization s hierarchy when trying to determine where the ultimate accountability for an accident should he. 

A central hypothesis derived from this data is as follows Ambient air particles are complex mixtures with intrinsic toxicity. In concert with preexisting inflammation, particulate exposure results in stimulation of lung receptors and immune cells, release of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and induction of pro-inflammatoiy mediators that lead to local and systemic effects, which ultimately account for the epidemiological associations between adverse health effects and particulate air pollution. Hypothetical mechanistic pathways by which inhalation of ambient particles in urban air may lead to morbidity and mortality are outlined in Figure 1. 

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