Preparing For A Government Audit

If you have an audit scheduled in the near future, here are seven tips to help you get through the process:

1. Contact Noverant Immediately.

If you have an audit scheduled, contact us at help@noverant.com. Routine audit support for our clients is free!

2. Review Assignment Status.

Noverant Online provides a quick, at-a-glance, view of compliance, expirations, key dates, etc., so be sure that you have reviewed the status of all your users before the inspection.

3. Know Regulatory Paragraphs By Number.

Most clients have labeled a particular competency (or its associated e-signature) to explicitly cite a specific regulation (e.g., xx CFR yyy). If you chose to not design your original set-up in this fashion, there’s no need to worry. Just be sure to understand which competency corresponds to which Federal requirement, so that it makes it much easier for the inspector.

4. Drug Program, HazMat & HIPAA Audits.

Clients typically have the most current new hire training course available for review during an audit. That’s a good practice; just remember that many employees may have completed a prior version. Noverant Online automatically keeps track of all revisions. If you are asked to present the actual training taken by an individual, go to their Noverant-Certified online transcript so that you are sure to present the actual revision which they completed.

5. TSA Audits.

We strongly encourage training administrators to review the TSA security awareness training requirements. We have found that many flight schools and charter operators do not have a clear understanding of who is required to take initial and recurrent security awareness training. Noverant’s RSAT training module can shed more light on this for training administrators. 

6. Operational Control.

The FAA will most likely audit your Part 135 operational control system in the near future. We strongly encourage clients to explicitly assign their GOM to all flight crew members, dispatch personnel and all those involved in Tier 1 or Tier 2 operational control. In particular, while some sections can be bundled for simplicity, operators should explicitly and individually assign A008 and the corresponding Operational Control System (typically GOM – Section A).

7. Stay calm.

Government auditors are just doing their job to ensure you’re compliant. No one is perfect, but if you demonstrate a genuine intent to do the right thing and have the right systems, procedures and people in place, things should go well!