7. Difficulties encountered

Auditees (and auditors) may encounter a number of difficulties, including the following:

• Incompleteness of the management system (e.g. absence of an operating procedure useful for the proper functioning of the management system, absence of a "documented" procedure required by the reference standard for the management system in place). The auditee may well be aware of this and hide the fact, or may have unintentionally omitted to meet a requirement of the standard;

• the "youth" of the management system, which leads to an inability to judge the management system (the classic "fresh paint" syndrome of a management system finished the evening before an audit, where no proof is yet available of a procedure still unknown to operators or freshly distributed!) Please don't use this argument to exonerate yourselves!...