Safety Audit

Although the Occupational Health and Safety Act does not typically require safety audits, most major companies require their suppliers to conduct regular safety audits as part of their procurement process.

Safety audits help you determine how effective your safety programs are, and we believe they are an essential piece of your safety management system.

Safety audits can be performed internally by supervisors and employees, or by third party auditors when you need an independent, non-biased audit of your operations.

Here are 11 reasons you should conduct regular inspections, and safety audits:

1. To determine if you your Safety and Health programs and procedures are working.
2. To verify that your employees and management are engaged in your safety programs.
3. To verify that your processes are in compliance with company policies and regulations.
4. To verify compliance with applicable Health and Safety Regulations.
5. To determine if you are documenting your safety and health program activities properly.
6. To discover and identify potential hazards.
7. To evaluate the effectiveness of existing management controls.
8. To check the safety of your workplace.
9. To check the safety of your equipment.
10. To evaluate the adequacy of your supervisors’ safety training and performance.
11. To evaluate the adequacy of your employees’ safety training and performance.

Safety audit and inspections have been shown to reduce the number of accidents, so it is something that benefits most employers. We recommend that you be proactive with safety, rather than waiting for an accident to happen.

How we can assist you?

Griffin occupational health and safety solutions can provide clients with two kinds of Audits, they are namely; Legal Compliance Based Audits and System Based Audits.

A Legal Compliance Based Audit is an in-depth audit of the Occupational Health and Safety Act and the regulations that follow.

The auditor queries the client on each regulation and sub regulations identifying compliance, non compliance and non-applicable legislation. Building a legal register for the client and a compliance report of the Occupational Health and Safety Act and all the Regulations that follow.

This audit is highly recommended to be completed at least once and as soon as possible after the commencement of business in order to identify the legal requirements of the Occupational Health and Safety Act within the industry and organisation.

Griffin occupational health and safety solutions can provide their clients with a legal register and compliance based report on the following act and regulations:

1. Occupational Health and Safety Act No 85 of 1993
2. General Administrative Regulations 1984
3. General Safety Regulations 1986
4. Major Hazardous Installation Regulations 2001
5. Regulations for Hazardous Biological Agents 2001
6. Explosive Regulations 2003
7. Construction Regulations 2014
8. Regulations on Hazardous Work by Children in SA 2010
9. Asbestos Regulations 1987
10. Diving Regulations 1991
11. Environmental Regulations for the workplaces 1987
12. Facilities Regulations 2004
13. Regulations of Hazardous Chemical Agents 2021
14. Lead Regulations 1991
15. Noise Induced Hearing Loss Regulations 2003
16. Driven Machinery Regulations 2015
17. General Machinery Regulations 1988
18. Lift, Escalator and Passenger Conveyor Regulations 1994
19. Pressure Equipment Regulations 2009
20. Electrical Installation Regulations 2009
21. Electrical Machinery Regulations 1988

A System Based Audit, reviews the effectiveness of the Health and Safety System currently in place. Comparing the theory behind the health and safety system with the practical implementation.

Each Health and Safety System is developed, implemented and reviewed differently. It is therefore important that the auditor understands the scope of the system and evaluate its effectiveness.

System audits are one of the key management tools for achieving the objectives set out in the policy of the organization. A system audit is a disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of a system.

Audits are carried out in order to verify that the individual elements within the system are effective and suitable in achieving the stated objectives.

The system audit also provides objective evidence concerning the need for the reduction, elimination and most importantly, prevention of non conformities.

The results of these audits can be used by the management for improving the performance of the organization.

System audits are carried out by the trained auditors who can be organization own staff or staff of an external auditing agency or independent professional auditors.

System audit is defined as “A systematic and independent examination to determine whether activities and related results comply with planned arrangements and whether these arrangements are implemented effectively and are suitable to achieve objectives.”

System audits are usually carried out for the following objectives.

• To evaluate the organization system against a system standard
• To determine the conformity or non conformity of the system elements with the specified requirements
• To determine the effectiveness of the implemented system in meeting the specified objectives
• To offer an opportunity for improvement in the system
• To meet statutory and regulatory requirements

OHS Compliance Audit Presentation