Best practice – your Pest Control internal audit checklist

Our latest blog offers some best practice tips which documentation to have on hand to make your internal pest control audit easier to pass.

The importance of audits is undisputed, and the audit process aims to magnify the quality control aspects of a business. But audit preparations are stressful, to say the least!

However, some actions and tasks can be done in advance to prepare for upcoming – and even unannounced – audits. Auditing and valid documentation go hand in glove and keeping your records up to date will allow you to benefit from a strong pass with little to no findings.

myRentokil – our unique online pest management reporting and analysis system – makes storing and maintaining these documents easy.

Here is a short checklist to keep you proactive and ready for audits:

We’ve identified three important categories of documentation to have on hand (and up to date) to make sure that you are ready for even an unannounced audit.

1. A current and active Service Level Agreement

A major requirement of your pest control audit is to have a copy of your current Service Level Agreement (SLA) or contract available on file. This is still a requirement even if you belong to the local branch of an organisation that has a national contract with a pest control provider.

In the case of national agreements, local branches must have a copy of the contract and a site listing stipulating all the sites (branches) being serviced by that provider.

This is a requirement for auditors because they need to hold businesses and providers accountable for the services rendered, extending beyond just pest control services. Your contract indicates that you have given another entity the ability and the responsibility to fulfill certain functions within your business.

2. Your service provider’s company documents

Your chosen pest control service provider needs to have various certifications in order to be able to conduct services on your site.

For pest control, the 3 most important company documents that should be in your file are as follows:

1. Letter of good standing: to ensure authorisation of claims from employees against the Compensation Fund.
2. Public liability insurance: This document is to show the auditing staff that should an accident occur, there is insurance in place to ensure comprehensive coverage. This is necessary because pest control operations have many technical and potentially dangerous applications which need to be completed safely and in line with the guidelines that keep the environment, property, and (most importantly) people, out of harm’s way.
3. South African Pest Control Association (SAPCA) certification: to be a recognized pest control provider in SA, the service teams and the company as a whole must have a South African Pest Control Association (SAPCA) certification which should be included in your file. 

3. Additional crucial audit support documents

Whilst there are quite a number of documents required for the audit to be successful, here are a few crucial ones that will definitely help you prepare.

• Proof of previous services for at least one year. Your site will undergo inspection visits throughout the year –  the frequency of which will depend on a variety of factors. However, it’s crucial that there is a record of services performed. Auditors will need to be able to reference back to previous services and recommendations made by the service provider.
• An accurate trend analysis of pest activity from the service reports: both of these reports must correspond with one another. Normally the auditing team will require the trend analysis for rodents, cockroaches, and flies, but this really depends on the audit standard that is placed on the business.
• Training records: Training is always important, and auditors like to ensure that it’s not only your pest control provider that is knowledgeable, but that you are as well. This is why pest awareness training is important and why records of the staff members trained on your site must be available on a training register and be available in the audit file.
• Guidelines in the case of activity: for example, the follow-up procedure for cockroach activity. These documents need to be aligned with the pest control company’s standard operating procedures (SOP’s).
• Non-conformance Action Report (NCR) must be completed for any findings that were noted during any inspection. This report provides details of the corrective actions taken to mitigate the non-conformance.
• Pest Control Operator/Officer (PCO) certificate:  PCO certificates are issued by the Department of Agriculture and validates that an individual is recognized to conduct pest control activities in a safe manner. Even if a PCO has left the pest control company, it is important that a copy of the PCO certification is kept in the audit file for at least one year, as that PCO’s work is still recorded on the service reports and the auditor will need this documentation to verify that the work performed was completed legally and within company guidelines.

To summarise:

There are a lot of documents required for a successful audit, but the above are – in our opinion – some of the most important. It’s always best practice to get your pest control provider involved in your auditing process, which allows them to help you through the documentation and your file.

myRentokil can help you ‘win’ at your audits, both internal and external, by providing everything you need in one convenient online location.

You can also contact our team of pest control experts if you would like some further advice.