AUDITECO understands the importance of companies complying with the environment and occupational health and safety legal requirements, in the context of increasingly complex technological challenges and a constantly changing legal framework.
We offer services dedicated to the detailed assessment of an organization’s compliance level with the applicable and anticipated legal requirements, as well as with its specific corporate environmental and health and safety standards. We support our clients in understanding the national and European legal requirements in force, so they can adequately apply them in their own activities.
EHS Compliance Process
The auditing process relies on our consultants’ in-depth knowledge of the applicable Romanian EHS legislation and on their technical skills of understanding the processes and activities of the target companies. Our purpose is for the audit process to contribute to the improvement of the target company’s compliance with the applicable legal requirements, to anticipate and reduce associated future risks and to streamline the compliance costs.
EHS Audit Benefits
Potential concrete benefits of an EHS audit include: a safer work environment, a minimised risk of penalties, increased efficiency and a good public image for the audited company. A thoroughly carried-out EHS audit may be viewed favourably by regulatory authorities, as it may signal that the company is making efforts to comply with the applicable legal requirements.
Applicable Romanian and European EHS requirements, as well as internal corporate standards, are complex and change frequently, which may pose difficulties to certain facilities. Consequently, an EHS Compliance Audit could be an important tool for any company, especially the ones which carryout complex activities, such as factories and plants.
EHS Compliance Auditors
An EHS Compliance Audit is carried out by experienced auditors. The auditors review publicly available documents, as well as any relevant internal documents provided by the audited facility prior to or during the audit. The auditors also conduct a site visit, during which they target areas such as: permits, operations, safety and training programs, chemical inventory, pollution prevention and control plants, water management, underground and aboveground storage tanks, water, soil and air quality, waste management, fire safety, general environmental management, occupational health management, etc.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) releases its top 10 list of most cited safety violations each year. In 2019, the most cited violations were: fall protection, hazard communication, scaffolding, lockout/tagout, respiratory protection, ladders, powered industrial trucks, fall protection – training requirements, machine guarding and personal protective and lifesaving equipment – eye and face protection.
Safety Breaches
The most cited safety violations in Romania include: personal protective equipment against fall from height is not provided and used, work equipment such as handrails, platforms or safety nets are not used, adequate EHS training is not provided to all workers and there are no internal inspections of work platforms, walkways, ladders and scaffolds and the way they are used and protected, in order to prevent accidents.
According to the European Union’s statistical office Eurostat, Romania has the highest rate of fatal accidents at work in the European Union. In 2014, the rate of fatal accidents in Romania was three times the European Union average, namely a rate of 7.1 fatal labour accidents per 100,000 workers, compared to an average of 2.3 fatal labour accidents per 100,000 workers.