1.0
Preamble
The responsible management of
contaminated land, conservation and management of resources, and
the improvement of the standards of living, including public
health, are greatly affected by the work of our Members. For
our work to be fully effective, it is necessary not only that our
Members strive constantly to widen their knowledge and improve
their skills, but also that the wider community be willing to
recognise the integrity and trust the judgement of our
Members. For this to happen, our Association must be
recognised in the wider community for:
♦
our skills in using technical expertise in contaminated land
management for the enhancement
and
protection of human and environmental
health;
♦
our loyalty to the community, to employees and Clients and to our
employees; and
♦
our honesty and impartiality in professional
practice.
Our Members shall so organise their
work so as to merit and protect this
trust.
To this end, our Members are required
to comply with this Code of Practice, to give active support to the
proper regulation of qualifications, employment and practice of our
profession, and to promote the development and application of
appropriate technology in the interest of our industry and the
wider community.
Members acting in accordance with this
Code will have the support of the
Association.
This Code of Practice applies to all
work carried out by Members of the Australian Contaminated Land
Consultants' Association Incorporated (ACLCA) in the field of
contaminated land consultancy services.
2.0
Definitions
"ACLCA" and "Association" means the Australian Contaminated Land
Consultants' Association Incorporated.
"Contaminated land consulting
services" include assessment and remediation of soil
and/or groundwater contamination and hydrogeological studies
undertaken in areas where groundwater contamination is an actual or
potential issue of concern.
"Member" means a consultancy firm that has been
admitted as a member of the Association.
"Site" means any location where a Member proposes
to or has actually carried out contaminated land consultancy
services.
3.0
Professional Competency
In respect to acceptable levels of
professional and technical competency, Members
shall:
♦
assess all their staff to be employed on contaminated land
consultancy services in relation
to the
Association's list of professional and technical competencies (a
list is available from
ACLCA
Executive Officer on info@aclca-wa.org.au);
♦
ensure that the staff to be employed as part of the project team
possess relevant levels of
competency,
appropriate to their statement of duties;
and
♦
develop and implement training plans for their staff to develop and
maintain the required
competencies.
4.0
Ethical Standards
Members of ACLCA shall set out their
ethical standards in a policy statement that is made available to
all staff and is provided to clients on their request. A copy
of the ethical standard policy of each new member shall be provided
to ACLCA prior to their application for membership of the
Association being considered.
Foundation members of the Association
shall provide a copy of their ethical standard policy within one
month of the Association adopting this Code of
Practice.
The ethical standards policy statement
shall include the following provisions, that Members
shall:
♦
contract to carry out any services only for which they have
appropriate levels of
competency
and experience;
♦
include in a report, no statement that it knows to be
untrue;
♦
not knowingly omit from any finalised report any information that
would materially alter the
conclusions
that could be drawn from the report;
♦
not endorse information supplied by their client or any other
organisation without taking
reasonable
steps to determine the validity of the information or where this is
not possible,
note
that such independent verification has not been possible;
and
♦
inform the client in writing should any member become aware of an
issue that results in a
significant
risk of harm that has not been reported.
5.0
Qualifications
Members shall undertake provision of
contaminated land consultancy services only when staff employed in
tasks such as sampling, monitoring and recording and contributing
to reporting have:
♦
recognised and relevant engineering scientific or technical
qualifications and/or appropriate
experience
for the duties they perform or have received appropriate in-house
training to
enable
them to perform these duties;
♦
received in-house or external training in all relevant techniques
to be used for collection of
samples
or monitoring and are familiar with and experienced in operating
procedures or
practices
as documented in the Member's quality
system;
♦
acquired experience in previous similar work, or are supervised by
a member of staff having
such
experience; and
♦
acquired familiarity with basic concepts, policy and legislation
issues relating to contaminated
land.
6.0
Quality Management System (QMS)
Members shall provide evidence to the
Association of their firm having implemented an acceptable Quality
Management System (QMS) for controlling the quality and adequacy of
their consultancy services. This QMS shall be appropriate for
the size and structure of the Member organisation, and the nature
of the work routinely undertaken.
The Association shall maintain a list
of the standard of quality management systems of each member, which
shall be up-dated periodically.
In accordance with the requirements of
their quality management system, each Member shall set up an
internal audit procedure that will verify that the above
requirements have been compiled with on a sufficient number of
randomly selected sample projects.
7.0
Management of Contaminated Land Projects
The responsible management of contaminated
land projects by our Members will be demonstrated by the
implementation by our Members of a number of essential procedures
that are outlined below. As for all environmental projects,
the actual scale and extent of these procedures will be based on
the nature and agreed scope of the works that are to be
performed.
7.1
Site Management Plan (SMP), Health &
Safety Plan (HSP) and Sampling & Analysis
Plan (SAP)
Prior to commencing any work on a site where
it could reasonably be expected that a concern for the environment
might arise, Members shall ensure that appropriate SMPs, HSPs and
SAPs have been prepared. (Details of the minimum requirements
for these plans are under development).
8.0
Annual Reporting to ACLCA
As part of the annual membership
renewal process, each Member shall submit a statement to the effect
that it continues to follow this Code of
Practice.
9.0
Non-conformance with Code of Practice
In the event that the Association
receives a complaint from an identifiable third party (e.g. the
EPA, a client, or a member of the general public) that a Member has
or may have contravened this Code of Practice, the following
provisions will apply:
a.
Except as otherwise provided by this clause, the President of ACLCA
('the
President") will
investigate
the complaint.
b.
The President may, however, decide to take no action concerning a
complaint if the President
considers
that the complaint falls into any of the following
categories:
(i)
the complaint is frivolous, vexatious, or not made in good
faith;
(ii)
the subject-matter of the complaint is trivial or does not warrant
investigation;
(iii)
the subject-matter of the complaint has been or is under
investigation by some other competent
person
or body or has been or is the subject of legal
proceedings;
(iv) the
subject raises issues that require investigation by another person
or body; or
(v)
there is or was, in relation to the matter complained of, a
satisfactory alternative means of
dealing
with the matter by the complainant.
c.
Where the President decides to take no action concerning a
complaint, the President shall notify
the
complainant and give the reasons for the
decision.
d.
Where the President decides to investigate a complaint, the
President shall give notice to the
Member
against whom the complaint has been made of the nature of the
complaint, with
sufficient
information being given so as to enable the Member to respond to
it.
e.
The notice must indicate that the Member may make representations
to the President before a
specified
date being a date that is reasonable in the circumstances of the
case.
f.
The Member may, in accordance with any such notice, make
representations to the President.
g.
The President is required to hear and to consider any
representations made by the Member and
to
make a decision, as expeditiously as possible, as to whether there
is a reasonable likelihood
that
the Member has contravened this Code of
Practice.
h.
After hearing and considering any representations made by the
Member, the President, if
satisfied
that there is a reasonable likelihood that the Member has
contravened this Code of
Practice,
shall, by notice in writing served on the member, require the
Member to attend, at a
time
and place specified in the notice, before a Special Meeting of the
Association's Executive.
i.
The Executive shall conduct a hearing into the matter as
expeditiously as possible and may
inform
itself of any matter in such manner, as it thinks fit. A
finding of the Executive is to be
made
on the balance of probabilities.
j.
The Executive may, if it finds the complaint against the Member is
proved:
(i)
counsel the Member;
(ii)
reprimand the Member; or
(iii)
terminate the Member's membership of the
Association.
k.
The Executive must provide a written statement of the decision made
in the proceedings before
it
to the Member against whom the proceedings were
taken.
l.
The statement of a decision must:
(i)
set out the findings on material questions of
fact;
(ii)
refer to any evidence or other material on which the findings were
based; and
(iii)
give the reasons for the decision.
m.
Where a Member's membership of the Association is terminated, the
Member shall not be
entitled
to any repayment of any remaining membership fees and will not be
permitted to
reapply
to the Association for readmission for at least 12 months from the
date of termination.
NOTE:
The provisions set out above are designed to ensure that a Member
is accorded "natural justice" (or "procedural fairness") before any
decision is made by the Association which might affect the Member's
rights, interests or legitimate expectations. Adequate notice
of the time and venue of any hearing, and the issues to be
considered, must be given so that a reasonable opportunity is
provided for the Member to prepare for and attend the
hearing. There would not appear to be any general entitlement
to legal representation or cross-examination. Any hearing
must accord with all accepted notions of fairness. The
Association is not obliged to inform the Member of all of the
details of any complaint made against the Member or of the
investigations of its officers. However, the Member must be
given "sufficient information" so as to know the substance of any
complaints and investigations. Sources of confidential
information and the identity of complainants may be
preserved. It should be noted that the investigation and
disciplinary process set out above is not intended, and must not be
allowed, to develop into a series of minor trials. The actual
requirements will depend upon the facts of each particular
case.
10.0
Confidentiality
All member information will be treated
in a professional and confidential manner.
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