Fit and Proper person for an RTO. A significant piece of an RTO's governance and risk management. ASQA noted a recent key change in the fit and proper person requirement including 'Extends fit and proper person requirements BEYOND CEOs and high managerial agents to any person which exercises a degree of CONTROL or INFLUENCE over the management or direction of the RTO.' So here are 5 examples of some actions that can occur to help comply with this standard: 1 Check your organisation chart identifies clearly all and each person noted as your fit and proper person's position description. Your Mission and Values should also have a reflection of ethos of the organisation. A big part of this is also to communicate these across the whole organisation, regularly and clearly.
2 Ensure you have policies and procedures that identify when substandard, unethical, dishonest or non-compliant practices are occuring what action is taken. They should also do the positive to this and identify what action IS occuring to keep these out of your organisation. 3 Document what relationships you have with all third parties and the organisation's process of who has the final judgement of action to take, roles and responsibilities, authorisation and identify what is considered to be CONTROL and INFLUENCE over management. 4 Identify where the documented agreements are stored, when these are reviewed and what the review process includes.
5 Ensure your recruitment process of these people includes a review of what is considered a fit and proper person for the RTO.
Who in your organisation ARE the high managerial agents?
These people/persons are defined by the NVR Act as anyone with responsibilities that may represent the organisation. Do you think a consultant is someone who fits this definition?
A consultant is noted as a high managerial agent
⌛ A consultant or employee with an ONGOING ROLE related to regulatory compliance OR
⌛ A consultant or employee who represents your organisation at audit
Make sure your information and relationships are clear, including roles and responsibilities and if there is an ONGOING ROLE and includes your Consultants. Consider other consultants such as accountants, marketing and web related roles and responsibilities.
Remember too that other agencies including the Victorian and Western Australia in the RTO world have there own requirements as well. Additional to this, don't forget, there is a number of other agencies and laws that have fit and proper person requirements so always check your own industry and all their requirements.
As a matter of information, EDCV is not and will not be a high managerial agent of any RTO. We do not attend audits for RTO's and we do not have ownership in any RTO. All activities we conduct is an ad-hoc as-needed basis, provide consulting suggestions for the RTO's fit and proper person to make judgments and decisions against, without EDCV having any degree of control or influence over the management or direction of the RTO. EDCV consider it to be fundament for an RTO's success for those with Manager Agents to have full knowledge and awareness of decisions they make and responsibilities they have.
