Audit and Self-Assessment
Fifteen HSEC audits were conducted during the reporting period to assess the level of implementation of the revised and more stringent HSEC Management Standards (Issue 3). The program involved 50 personnel from both HSEC functional roles and operational roles and five external auditors. This brings to 106 the number of site audits conducted since the program commenced in September 2001, with 292 BHP Billiton and 26 external auditors involved.
As in previous years, operating sites not audited during the year were required to undertake self-assessments against the Standards. The results from these 61 self-assessments have been combined with the audit results to give the range and average level of conformance for each of the Standards shown in the diagram below. This shows an overall conformance of 3.9 out of 5 against the broader scope of the revised (Issue 3) HSEC Management Standards and indicates that we are on track to meet our target of full conformance (a score of greater than 4 out of 5) with the Standards by 30 June 2008.
The audit and self-assessment process is assisting sites to accelerate the rate of implementation of the HSEC Management Standards through identifying and communicating leading practices.
