E&S Safety Risk Evaluation: Preventive & Corrective Management Systems
Each sector in which Cordiant invests present its own set of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) risks, which requires the team to systematically integrate health and safety prevention principles as part of the Due Diligence, Action Plans, as well as incorporating specific KPIs into Monitoring & Evaluation Reports.
E&S Safety Risk Evaluation
Each sector in which Cordiant invests present its own set of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) risks, which requires the team to systematically integrate health and safety prevention principles as part of the Due Diligence, Action Plans, as well as incorporating specific KPIs into Monitoring & Evaluation Reports.
As a means to ensure that procedures for identifying hazards and assessing OHS risks in an accurate and timely manner are in place, Cordiant does assess each borrower`s capacity, commitment and track record regarding OHS & EHS, as part of the preliminary and final due diligence. This is because it is the objective of Cordiant is to understand the main hazards and risks present within operations of each borrower and to be able to understand which standards are applicable in order to design an adequate OHS management plan and to prioritize management and corrective measures to mitigate, on a preemptive basis, such serious impacts.
After conducting an assessment of each borrower`s policies, management plans and practices Cordiant evaluates whether they are designed and implemented in order to ‘’eliminate and, where this is not possible, reduce, the level of risk to an acceptable level in accordance with Good International Industry Practices (GIIP)[1]’’. As such, both the World Bank Group General EHS Guidelines and the IFC OHS Guidelines are included in the process, on a systematic basis. Usually, the Safety Management System include the following elements;
- Management commitment and employee involvement
- Worksite analysis and hazard identification
- Hazard prevention and control
- Employee safety training
Action Plan & Mitigation Measures
Where appropriate, Cordiant develops Action Plans to ensure that any gaps are addressed. As part of the Action Plans, we thus ensure that the applicable Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) & Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) measures has been addressed and will be complied with.
As part of the process, we thus require borrowers to implement the measures internally within all affected operations.
Where OHS risks are high, Cordiant does consider bringing in consultants to advise us on the standard of companies’ OHS management prior to investment. As such, Cordiant conducts the gap analysis and do request that borrowers comply with the agreed upon management measures.
Note that this is applicable to both contractors & supply chain.
The objectives of the Action Plan is basically to prioritizing the implementation of management and corrective measures. As such, the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) agreed upon by the borrower will address the following;
- Eliminating or reducing hazards : which includes the replacement of dangerous materials with less dangerous materials
- Isolating or controlling hazards at their source
- Minimising risks through the design and use of safe systems of work
- Providing appropriate protective measures: which can include to prioritise measures aimed at reducing the risk for more than one person (collective protection) over those designed to protect a specific worker (personal protective measures).
Work Related Activities Incidents: Procedure Overview Investigation, Monitoring and Reporting
As per the above section, Cordiant does ensure that borrowers have adequate emergency planning and response provisions and procedures for the safety of workers, contractors, and, when appropriate, affected communities. Yet, incidents occurring during such work related activities must be reported to Cordiant within 3 days, for instance;
In addition, details of the incident required to be disclosed include the following;
- Name of worker injured
- Number of fatalities, lost time injuries or medical treatments (including their status (employee, contractor, visitor, member of the public)
- Witnesses (including relevant staff)
- Routine/non-routine activity being undertaken
- Description of incident: factual statement of what happened
- Scene inspection photos/notes- of each incident scene
- Sequence of events pre-dating accident
- Immediate cause
- Unsafe acts in sequence
- Unsafe conditions in sequence
- Underlying causes of unsafe acts/conditions (initial view)
- Root cause(s)
- Interim preventive measures
- Details of whether work has been suspended and whether restart has occurred or is planned to
- Details of planned investigation, including timeline for mobilisation
- Details of involvement from external agencies (Police, Health and Safety agencies, corrective / preventive action for EACH significant cause actioned, timed-bound plan (to be attached)
- Other interim actions required cross-check to other activities / locations for lessons learned
- Any negative publicity (including media) resulting from the incident?
- Details of any immediate actions taken to secure repeat or escalation of the incident
Action Plan & Emergency Response Plan:
After investigation, Cordiant ensures that a corrective measures are included in an Emergency Response Plan & Action Plan.
Borrowers must have implemented and complied with such procedures to investigate all near misses and accidents and that effective corrective measures efficient in order to avoid future serious accidents.
This is also monitored through a subsequent Monitoring Report.