On the 30th April 2008, Bhagwan Marine was identified as the first Australian Marine Company to become certified to all three internationally recognised standards for Quality (ISO9001:2000), Occupational Health & Safety (OHSAS18001:2007) and Environmental Management (ISO14001:2004).

The design and development of what is now called, our “Integrated Management System” encompasses all elements of the three standards and also includes compliance with the International Safety Management (ISM) Code requirements.

The ISM Code was introduced by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Assembly in 1993 as a uniform code of practice for the “Safe Operation of Ships and for Pollution Prevention”. The Bhagwan Marine IMS is structured in such a way to provide ease of navigating through what can some times be described as a complex labyrinth of documented procedures and endless paperwork that although essential in demonstrating compliance to the authorities, can be easily viewed as a bureaucratic burden to business.

Mindful of the risks in becoming bureaucratic, we have consciously maintained the “KISS” principle, we have designed simplicity in documenting the procedures that describes what we do in our day to day activities and then simply we systematically maintain a record to demonstrate that we have done what we said we would do.

Phase 1 - IMS Certification

Certification involved a team of four (4) auditors from AJA Registrars (our Certification Body) flying in from various corners of the globe to conduct an audit of our systems over a three day period in April 2008. They visited the Perth Office and our Geraldton Office to collect the subjective evidence necessary to demonstrate compliance with the standards. The audit report was submitted to the AJA Head Office in the UK where they reviewed the findings and formally issued Bhagwan Marine with Certification on the 30th April 2008. This was truly a significant moment in the Bhagwan Marine history.

Phase 2 - IMS Verification

The verification process is conducted internally through regular audits of our systems to ensure that they are fully implemented throughout our business. This involves a tightly structured schedule of audits that will be coordinated and managed by Andy Cowan the Business Systems Manager. Bhagwan Marine systems are also subject to 6 monthly surveillance audits conducted by AJA auditors to verify and ensure that we are following our procedures and that we are able to demonstrate conformance with our documented procedures contained in our IMS.