Considerations Related to the obligations to carry out regulatory authority oversight audits ā Steve Bentley MD SAS www.sassofia.com
ATM/ANS.AR.C.015 Oversight programme (Regulation (EU) 2017/373)
(a) The competent authority shall establish and update annually an oversight programme taking into account the specific nature of the service providers, the complexity of their activities, the results of past certification and/or oversight activities and shall be based on the assessment of associated risks.
It shall include audits, which shall:
(1) cover all the areas of potential safety concern, with a focus on those areas where problems have been identified;
Consider this is looking at the following in respect of the auditee:
a) Documented Process for identifying roles and responsibility
b) Process for managing the competency of the responsible individuals including validation
c) Process for Reporting, Assessing, Measure Risk and Exposure and developing appropriate mitigations
d) A Process for measuring the effectiveness of ācā above
(2) cover all the service providers under the supervision of the competent authority;
Needs to consider the following:
a) Developing a standardised approach to auditing ā consistency
b) Documented oversight system to show aggregated and consolidated Data
c) Trends
d) Areas of Concern
(3) cover the means implemented by the service provider to ensure the competency of personnel;
Checklist for Competence ā includes:
a) Identification and Management of personnel to be assessed.
b) Assessment Procedures.
c) Evaluation system.
d) Training Process Driven from Competency Assessment.
e) Management of Qualifications.
f) On going Supervision of the Competence Assessment Process.
g) Selection and Approval of Assessors.
(4) ensure that audits are conducted in a manner commensurate with the level of the risk posed by the service provider operations and services provided; and
To deliver this typically involves two elements:
a) Developing a Quality Control Process to ensure the effectiveness of the oversight process
b) Developing a Quality Assurance Audit Process to validate the QC Process
(5) ensure that for service providers under its supervision, an oversight planning cycle not exceeding 24 months is applied.
Requires (for example)
a) Active Management ā QC
b) Overseen by Independent Quality Assurance System with direct access to the Chief Exec.
Note – The oversight planning cycle may be reduced if there is evidence that the safety performance of the service provider has decreased.
For a service provider certified by the competent authority, the oversight planning cycle may be extended to a maximum of 36 months if the competent authority has established that, during the previous 24 months:
(i) the service provider has demonstrated an effective identification of aviation safety hazards and management of associated risks;
(ii) the service provider has continuously demonstrated compliance with the change management requirements under points ATM/ANS.OR.A.040 and ATM/ANS.OR.A.045;
(iii) no level 1 findings have been issued;
(iv) all corrective actions have been implemented within the time period accepted or extended by the competent authority as defined in point ATM/ANS.AR.C.050.
If, in addition to the above, the service provider has established an effective continuous reporting system to the competent authority on the safety performance and regulatory compliance of the service provider, which has been approved by the competent authority, the oversight planning cycle may be extended to a maximum of 48 months;
(6) ensure follow-up of the implementation of corrective actions;
(7) be subject to consultation with the service providers concerned and notification thereafter;
(8) indicate the envisaged interval of the inspections of the different sites, if any.
Sofema Aviation Services offers a 3 day training to address EASA Quality Assurance Auditing Introduction for Air Navigation Services (ANS) ā3 Days.
For details please email office@sassofia.com
or see HERE
Tags:
Air Navigation, EASA Quality Assurance, Quality Assurance Auditing, Regulation
