The Office of the Federal Safety Commissioner (OFSC) runs an ongoing audit program as part of
the Scheme. These audits aim to verify the implementation of claims made in documentation by the company. Audits are conducted to assess compliance against the Scheme criteria - see OFSC Auditing Criteria (
PDF 254KB | RTF 615KB).
Audits are conducted in the following circumstances:
Accreditation and Reaccreditation Audits
When a contractor applies for accreditation or reaccreditation under the Scheme, the application undergoes a two-phase assessment. Phase one is the desktop assessment, an analysis of documents and evidence submitted by the company. Phase two is an on-site audit to verify implementation of the claims made in documentation supplied in the application.
On application there will be an initial audit. On-site audits are conducted against Scheme criteria determined by the FSC - see OFSC Auditing Criteria (PDF 254KB | RTF 615KB). The OFSC audit criteria cover three key areas:
If one or more non-conformances are raised at the initial audit the contractor may be required to undergo a follow-up audit to verify that any corrective actions made to their system to address the non-conformance(s) have been implemented on site. For more information, see Audit results and the Corrective Actions and the Audit Process fact sheet (PDF 170KB | RTF 67KB )
Project safety audits
When an accredited company is awarded a contract for construction work covered by the Scheme, a series of project safety audits are conducted over the life of the project. For more information, see the Corrective Actions and the Audit Process fact sheet (PDF 170KB | RTF 67KB )
Special audits
Special audits are conducted to monitor ongoing compliance with the Scheme requirements. Some examples where special audits may be undertaken include:
- as a result of a condition of a company’s accreditation
- as a result of the compliance process being applied to a company
- as a result of continuous unsatisfactory project safety audits.
Maintenance audits
Maintenance audits are conducted on accredited companies that have not been audited through a project safety audit for at least six months. These audits form part of the requirement of accreditation, that contractors participate in ongoing on-site audits to verify they still comply with the OFSC audit criteria.
Timing
Audits for companies applying for accreditation or reaccreditation and being assessed against all criteria can take up to two days.
All other audits are generally one-day audits.
Federal Safety Officers
Audits are conducted on sites selected by the OFSC by Federal Safety Officers (FSOs) appointed under the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act 2005. FSOs are qualified OHS auditors with experience in the building and construction industry and operate throughout Australia.
The OFSC liaises with the company and the FSO to set an agreed audit date.
At the completion of an audit the FSO prepares an audit report including any corrective action reports (CARs). CARs set out the detail of the non-conformance the FSO has raised against specific audit criteria.
For more information, see Corrective Actions and the Audit Process fact sheet (PDF 170KB | RTF 67KB )
Reporting
Companies who undergo an audit as part of the Scheme are provided with a copy of the FSO's audit report for each audit.
Related Links
Auditing fact sheets