The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has failed to properly evaluate its Compliance Program and therefore cannot be sure that the program is accomplishing the aviation safety objectives that led to its creation, a government watchdog agency says.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in an audit report released Aug. 20 that without an evaluation, the FAA “will not know if the Compliance Program is improving safety or having other effects, intended or unintended.”
The agency adopted the Compliance Program, then called the Compliance Philosophy, in 2015, with the stated goal of using compliance actions such as counseling instead of penalties to address violations of safety standards by entities under the FAA’s jurisdiction. Compliance actions can be used instead of enforcement actions when the regulated entity is willing to comply with the FAA’s standards.
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