Safety audit at all NS camps

Sun2Surf: BANGI (May 4, 2007): A safety audit system will be introduced at all National Service (NS) training camps by the National Service Training Department (JLKN) to ensure they are safe for use, National ServiceTraining Council chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye said today.
He said the system would be implemented by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) at all 80 NS camps in the country to ensure they were administered according to the required operation standards.
Lee, who is NIOSH chairman, said the system had received the greenlight from the Defence Ministry.
"A pilot project had been carried out where NIOSH audited six camps since last year. The audit reports will be handed to JLKN for further action, including setting the dates for auditing at the remaining camps," he told reporters after launching the World Occupational Safety and Health Day organised by NIOSH here.
Lee said NIOSH officers would do the auditing where they would check the equipment and infrastructure at NS camps to ensure they met the required standards.
He said the move was in line with a Defence Ministry directive for all camp operators to obtain certification from appointed consultants, the latest by next month.
"All camp commandants, the trainers and NS trainees should realise the importance of safety and not compromise on the matter," Bernama quoted Lee as saying today.
On another matter, Lee said statistics from the Social Security Organisation (Socso) showed a 60% drop in the number of workplace accidents from 120,000 cases in 1994 to 58,321 last year.
He said the number of accidents reported to Socso in 2000 was 95,006 cases followed by 95,926 cases in 2001, 81,810 in 2002, 73,858 in 2003, 69,132 in 2004 and 61,182 in 2005.
The drop was due to the high commitment from the government, employers and awareness among the workers on ensuring safety at the workplace, he added.