Baskar Kotte
Not content alienating world industries with a rushed, half-baked ISO 9001 revision that merely sought to meet a printing deadline imposed by ISO, now TC 176 is trying to do the same thing with the standard on auditing, ISO 19011.
Leading this effort in the US is one Baskar Kotte, another career Tagger who (guess) runs a consulting firm that benefits from these kind of scenarios. Kotte is pressing the US TAG membership to vote to approve a measure to fast-track revision of ISO 19011, in order (guess) address the reviled Annex SL requirements imposed on TC 176 by the ISO Technical Management Board.
Says Kotte:
Revision of ISO 19011 will be highly beneficial at this time since ISO 9001:2015 (Quality), ISO 14001:2015 (Environment), ISO 45001(Safety) and other MSS standards are in the process being harmonized and published. At this time, users (conducting internal or external audits) of these management system standards need a guideline like this which provides guidance on auditing principles, conducting MSS audits and evaluating the competence of all involved.
TC 176 SC3 Secretary Annemarie de Jong provided a clearer rationale for the rush in a cover letter for the ISO 19011 New Work Item Proposal (NWIP), citing “the necessity of the content of ISO 19011 to be revised after the revision of ISO 9001.”
So because ISO 9001 was rushed to publication over the objections of entire industries, so too should ISO 19011. That makes sense to Ms. de Jong.
ANSI is Antsy
She’s not alone. In the NWIP itself, drafted by ANSI (with likely input from Kotte), the financial potential for rushing ISO 19011 is put front and foremost (emphasis added):
In the year after its last publication, ISO 19011 was the second highest seller at by both quantity and revenue for ISO. The standard has potential to become increasingly popular because there are currently almost 50 ISO management system standards (MSSs) published, with more being developed. Since ISO 19011 gives direction on how to audit to an MSS standard, it should be revised within a new more broadly focused [project committee] …. ANSI is proposing to administer the secretariat for the new PC.
This request is timely because there are several MSSs already under revision including both ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, which will be published this year. Therefore, it is crucial that ISO 19011 be revised soon so that it can reflect the new structure and other revisions to the documents. The largest group of MSS users will need to prepare for recertification audits within the next three years, and will benefit from a revised ISO 19011. The PC should be formed and the revision initiated as soon as possible rather than waiting for the currently scheduled systematic review in 2016.
What does this mean? It means that not only will TC 176 have been responsible for releasing a revision to ISO 9001 that creates more confusion than ever, the standard we rely on help train internal auditors will now be equally rushed, all for the sake of meeting arbitrary publication deadlines that benefit ISO and the chosen consultants who kowtow to its every whim.
Disgraceful.
Tell Baskar Kotte you don’t want a rushed, half-assed version of ISO 19011. Tell him and his cronies to do it right, no matter how long it takes.
Christopher Paris is the founder and VP Operations of Oxebridge. He has over 35 years’ experience implementing ISO 9001 and AS9100 systems, and helps establish certification and accreditation bodies with the ISO 17000 series. He is a vocal advocate for the development and use of standards from the point of view of actual users. He is the writer and artist of THE AUDITOR comic strip, and is currently writing the DR. CUBA pulp novel series. Visit www.drcuba.world
