Analyzing and assessing risks for accredited inspection bodies

The legislation of the Russian Federation stipulates the necessity for accreditation within the national system that encompasses organizations engaged by control (surveillance) bodies to accomplish inspections. Activities performed by inspection bodies have strategic importance and provide necessary support for surveillance over implementation of national development projects. It is especially relevant to provide uninterrupted functioning of accredited inspection bodies. Contemporary conditions require improvement of the existing legal and organizational approaches used by federal budgetary institutions in their activities as well as developing and implementing new ones. Statistical data on the research object of the present study and relevant mathematical models are non-existent; given that, we applied an expert approach to risk identification using the Delphi method and expert judgment. The aim of this study was to analyze and assess risks in activities performed by an accredited inspection body and suggest ways to minimize them. Two groups took part in the study. The first one included experts (18 technical directors of three inspection bodies); the second group was made of analysts. The most competent specialists in the analyzed field of activity where risks would be identified were selected as experts. Their functional duties covered responsibility for risks associated with activities of an inspection body as well as for responses to them. To obtain ideas of analyzed risks, we used a questionnaire to collect experts’ answers and to distribute them into specific categorize for further analysis. A risk level was identified by using the risk analysis diagram. Any response measures were taken relying on this level. We created a register of risk levels and responses to them. A high risk was identified in activities performed by an inspection body as regards external influence of new changes in the legislation. Reformation of the accreditation system for organizations operating in the sphere of providing sanitary-epidemiological welfare may be a potential solution to the existing problem.