PSM General Awareness Training by Gary Whitmore - HTML preview

Chapter 14 – Compliance Audits

To ensure that a PSM program is on track, a compliance audit is required every three years.

This audit will basically verify that the PSM procedures are adequate and being followed. It goes with the old saying, “Write down what you do and do what you wrote down.”

This compliance audit is geared to ensure that a PSM program is complying with the requirement of OSHAs PSM standard.

In regards to the audit team, one person must have knowledge of the process being audited. And of course one person with extensive knowledge of OSHA PSM program is also important and recommended. That would prevent inaccurate audit findings to be generated.

After the audit is completed, a report should be generated to document the findings of the audit. Later, the audit report should:

• Document appropriate response to each audit finding.
• Document when deficiencies have been corrected.

OSHA requires that an employer retain two most recent compliance audit reports. Most companies keep all audit reports for the life of the PSM process.