In the final episode of Season 4 of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis wrap up the key theme of the season of due diligence as a governance process. They also provide another industry example in Dam Safety, and discuss the relevance of WHS/OHS legislation and the state of prosecutions.

Key take-aways include:

•  The due diligence process is a governance process that focuses on high consequence, low likelihood events rather than risk management.
• Dam safety highlights how regulators focus on the worst-case scenario of a dam failure rather than likelihood.
• The due diligence process involves four key tasks: completeness checks, identifying critical issues, determining reasonable controls, and implementing a quality assurance system. 
• WHS/OHS legislations must be integrated across safety decisions. 
• WHS prosecutions seem to be more prevalent in jurisdictions where it’s been in place a while, with regulators more likely to prosecute smaller to medium-sized organisations due to the increased likelihood of winning.

For further information on Richard and Gaye’s consulting work with R2A, head to https://www.r2a.com.au.

Gaye is also founder of women’s safety workwear company Apto PPE if you’d like to check out the garments at https://www.aptoppe.com.au 

Look out for Season 5 coming soon!