Checklist - Audit and External Verification

This category audits the audit. It asks whether the department has an audit program as described in 01 Audit Program, whether that program ran as written in the year, whether the people who ran it were competent and independent, whether the findings went anywhere, and whether the program itself was reviewed. It is the category that keeps the other 19 honest.

Because the safety division owns the audit program, this category is never scored by the health and safety officer or anyone in the safety division. In the annual audit it is scored by the lead auditor; in the quarterly cycle it is spot-audited by a trained officer from another division or by the municipality’s corporate safety function (01 Audit Program section 7). In an external verification year, the external party scores it and the internal result is reported beside it.

It does not cover workplace inspections and indicators (category 18), the management review that receives the audit (category 20) or the corrective action register itself (scored in category 16 and here only for audit findings).

The management-system requirement is an internal audit at planned intervals, with auditors selected for objectivity and impartiality and results reported to management and workers (ISO 45001:2018, cl. 9.2); the method is ISO 19011 (ISO 19011:2026). NFPA 1550 expects the department to evaluate its program on a fixed cycle and its annex guidance describes an internal audit at least annually and an external audit every three years (NFPA 1550, 2024, ch. 6 and Annex H). Check whether the applicable OHS statute requires the written program to provide for monitoring its own implementation and effectiveness (J03 OHS Policy and Program); this audit program is how the department does it either way. The COR convention is an internal audit every year and an external audit in year one of three (CFCSA, 2021).

Full rules in 01 Audit Program section 5. In short: the CFAI column gives the 10th edition indicator the item evidences, or a dash. Score D, I and E each 0 to 3; derive the item score (0 not in place; 1 documented not implemented; 2 implemented not verified effective; 3 implemented and effective with evidence); both-required evidence codes need both types to score above 1 on implementation; weights C3, K2, S1 and the L flag (must score at least 2); category score is the weighted roll-up; effectiveness index from E alone.

Loop test. The January audit grades a finding major and rates it P1 on a Friday. By Monday, who has been told, what interim control is in place, when is the plan due, who verifies the closure, and when does the crew at the station concerned hear what was found and fixed?

Answer each from observation or interview only, record the evidence, and use it for the E score of the items it touches.

1. Did the audit find what the year’s events found? Take the three most serious injuries, near misses or regulator contacts in the year. For each, ask whether the preceding audit or spot-audit scored the relevant items below 3, and whether the finding was open or closed when the event happened. An audit that scored a category 85 per cent two months before a serious event in that category is evidence of an audit problem, not a department problem, and the review question in item 34 exists for this.
2. Does the audit change anything? Ask the fire chief, a deputy chief and a program manager each to name one thing the department did differently because of last year’s audit, without the report in hand. Score 3 only if all three answers are specific and match the register.
3. Do members report they can speak to an auditor safely, raise a concern and get an answer? Ask every interviewee the two standing questions from 01 Audit Program section 1a. Then ask members who were interviewed last year whether they were told nothing would be attributed, whether they believed it, and whether they heard what came of it. Record the proportion with a specific, positive answer (Edmondson, 1999)DOI.

1. Fire chief: when did you confirm the lead auditor’s independence, and why that person?
2. Lead auditor: how did you choose which volunteer stations to visit, and what did the report say about the ones you did not?
3. Lead auditor: show me the conflict declarations for the last audit and one records sample list.
4. HSO: describe being interviewed as an auditee. Which categories did you not score, and who did?
5. Program manager: which of your findings from the last audit are still open, and why?
6. JOHSC co-chair: when did the committee receive the full report, and what did it say in reply?
7. Member interviewed last year: what were you told about confidentiality, and what did you hear afterwards about the audit?
8. Deputy chief: which overdue finding was escalated to you this year, at what point, and what did you do?
9. Observe: the criteria register’s version against the editions cited in the checklists.
10. Observe: the register reconciled against the audit report’s findings list; count any missing.
11. Observe: the destruction record for last year’s interview notes.
12. Everyone: if you saw something unsafe tomorrow, who would you tell and what would happen? Have you raised a concern in the last year, and did you get an answer?

This chapter relies on the following legal requirements, which differ by province and territory. Check your jurisdiction’s section on each topic page before adopting it.