SHORTCUTS AND THE ENDLESS INCIDENTS; Emmanuel K. Okudor
It’s sad to know that some consultants now carryout facility inspection and simple Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) and coined the report into a safety case. This is unprofessional and risky for facility owners. Some owners of the facility don’t even know what a safety case is, so everything goes provided the document is called a safety case. This is common in the downstream oil and gas industry and some marginal fields. This is risky to the business owner as they focus more on mere paper work to ”satisfy regulatory requirements” instead of dealing with the realities of the high risk the facility is exposed to; when a good safety case is developed and remedial action plan closed out.
It is laughable, unprofessional to develop a facility safety case without at least, a HAZOP Study workshop, HAZID and MAH workshop, Facility Evacuation, Escape and Rescue assessment and Fire and Explosion Risk Assessment (FERA) especially for Oil and gas facilities other than the facility description & other parts of the safety case.
Some consultants’ now carryout unsafe conditions, JHA and include pictures and facility description in some cases and the document is called a safety case. This is quite unprofessional and makes caricature of professionalism in Nigeria as regard to safety case development. This is just an aspect of many other areas in safety and other professions where shortcuts are taken and professionalism undermined. Other than this technical area mentioned, there are other several factors that could lead to accidents if we continue to ignore the right thing and take short cuts. We should not expect a decline in accident rate in Nigeria if short cuts are continuously taken by facility owners and other stakeholders without been held accountable for their actions. It becomes more worrisome that some consultants and professionals who are supposed to act professionally and advise clients to do the right thing are the ones encouraging them to take short cuts and even assisting organizations to take short cuts because of peanuts ‘’ money’’.
Some of these professionals and organizations providing questionable and unprofessional advisory supports will also join others on various platforms to share lessons learnt from incidents and champion the ‘blame game’’ once an accident happens. What is your message on lessons learnt when you have remotely contributed to some of these incidents by encouraging or taking short cut and undue risk at various phases of the facility life cycle?
What is the safety awareness campaign about?
While do we always come together spend resources and when we leave the workshops, conference, trainings etc; we are back to taking short cuts and act unprofessionally. Why the communique after each conference, why travel over the seas taking risk to attend conferences and trainings and come back to your workplace and take short-cuts? Why? of what essence are our certifications and competence? If our actions and inactions are detrimental to safety of lives and properties? Why do we start a business or merge and acquire businesses with huge capital investment and budget little or nothing in the area of safety and consciously take short cuts and bribe those with the sledge hammer to look the other way so as to enable you TO CONTINOUSLY TAKE SHORT CUTS AND LOOK THE OTHER WAY?
Do you realize that you only shift the doomsday by seconds, minutes, hours, days, months and years? You may have to pay for it someday.
How is this different from self-deceit?
Do we really love ourselves and value lives? If yes, then we must consciously do the right thing and act professionally in the open or in secret.
I am not against safety awareness campaign but industry leaders should do the right thing and live by example for the human value chain in an organization to mimic and prevent accident. This message is not only for consultants but also, for everyone. There must be need for people to be responsible, accountable and consciously do the right thing and act professionally for us to reduce or prevent incidents. It goes beyond safety awareness campaign.
The law enforcers/regulators of industries should be at the front burner to live by example and then go after those that infringes the safety rules.
When enforcement agencies fail to act professionally and look the ‘’other way’’ then the accident rate will keep increasing. Enforcement becomes a lipstick service and business owners now have a different view when they visit their facility for any reason. They are not seen as adding value to facility safety but for the fear of penalty they exchange arms for short cuts to continue rather than closing the gaps to ensure continued and safer operations.
This unprofessional act has become a vicious cycle that has been going on years after years without records to show the progression or retrogression in accident rate in various industries and Nigeria as a country.
Structural fire and types within our environment
‘’ When we do the same thing (take short cuts and act unprofessionally) repeatedly in trying to address or solve a problem that is evolving without a realistic practical scenario-based approach and action taken to solve current problems, it becomes almost if not a wasted effort, resources, time etc’’ Do not expect appreciable results if you still at the ‘’ Safety Awareness Campaign phase’’ ,enforcement is key to the expected paradigm shift.
While we increase the safety awareness level via campaigns after each accident; enforcement of recommendations from incidents should be closed out in real time and cascaded to stakeholders to forestall reoccurrence. Knowing the right thing to do and not doing it because of cost is an accident waiting to happen and it is also unprofessional and companies found guilty should be dealt with accordingly.
When people are not held accountable for their actions or inactions; they don’t care about lives of the public and their staff provided their bottom-line is achieved. The results of implementation of proactive measures taken to avert accidents and other proactive measures taken by organizations should be projected more while the safety awareness campaign also runs simultaneously.
This ‘’ BLACK SWAN’’ is everywhere in the industry just like corruption in Nigeria; collectively we can reduce it if we act professionally, do the right thing and avoid short cuts whether it is convenient or not, expensive or not.
Do you know that you save or can save a life or prevent accident each time you act professionally, do the right thing and avoids short cuts?
If you are not making progress to make a difference in accident prevention…then change your strategy and stop wasting your resources applying the same strategies that haven’t yielded good result.
SHORTCUTS AND THE ENDLESS INCIDENTS…a short piece for those who want to save lives & properties and enhance productivity.