Requirements for an approved security industry association |
An approved security industry association has a responsibility to help improve the integrity of the security industry in Queensland.
As such, there are a number of requirements placed upon approved security industry associations.
Application
Your application to become an approved security industry association must be in writing to the Chief Executive of the Office of Fair Trading.
The letter must be on your organisation´s letterhead, indicate the area(s) of the security industry in which your organisation is involved, and indicate whether membership is restricted to security firms who operate in this area(s).
Incorporation
Your association must be incorporated. The association may be incorporated as a company under the Corporations Act 2001 or as an incorporated association under the Associations Incorporation Act 1981 (or a similar Act in another jurisdiction).
Your association must hold an election for its office holders (e.g. President/Chairperson, Secretary and Treasurer and other members of its management committee or board of directors) at least once every two years.
At least one member elected to your association´s management committee or board of directors must be a security firm.
Financial viability
Your association must be finically viable. This means that your association must be able to pay its debts as and when they become due.
When you apply for approval, you need to provide the last three year´s financial statements, including an accountant´s written report about their audit of each statement. If your association has not been incorporated for three years, you need to provide all financial statements that you have available.
You also need to provide a declaration of financial viability. The declaration must be made under a decision or resolution of your management committee or board of directors and must be signed by at least one office holder.
This declaration must be supported by a statement by the association´s accountant agreeing with the declaration based on the audited financial statements and the business plan.
Business plan
Your association must have a business plan that:
- describes how the association is to be funded
- includes details of the services the association provides to members
- adopts a whole-of-business approach to planning by including, for example, marketing, financial and risk management plans.
Services to members
Your association must provide genuine and accessible services relevant to your members.
For example:
- programs for the education and training of your members to develop skills and expertise relevant to the security industry
- information or advice about laws and obligations applying to security firms.
Promotion of ethics and conduct
Your association must demonstrate that it promotes a high standard of ethics and conduct for the security industry.
For example:
- your association's code of conduct
- the training material or information you make available to members
- your association´s promotional material.
Code of conduct
Your association must have a code of conduct requiring your members to adopt best practice industry standards. Your code of conduct must be approved by us and meet minimum benchmarks.
Under your code of conduct, you must be able to deal with a breach of your code of conduct by:
- asking a member to take remedial action for the breach
- taking disciplinary action against a member for the breach.
Your code of conduct must include a requirement that you will give the member a written notice about their alleged breach of the code of conduct.
Complaint management policy
Your association must have a complaint management policy and make it available to your members and the public. Your complaint management policy must be approved by us and meet minimum benchmarks.
Under your complaint management policy, you must:
- deal with complaints about a member promptly and fairly
- make every reasonable effort to resolve a complaint about a member.
Compliance audits
To ensure compliance with your association´s code of conduct, your association must conduct an audit of each of your member security firms, at least once every three years. If you have a new member, who has joined your association from another approved association, and cannot show that they have had a satisfactory compliance audit completed within the last three years, you must complete your first audit of the member within one year.
Compliance audits must be conducted by an accountant and:
- assess member´s compliance with the provisions of your code of conduct
- state whether the auditor believes the member is complying with your code of conduct and
- be conducted in compliance with the auditing and assurance standards made by the Auditing and Assurance Standards Board.
You must provide a copy of the written audit report to the member within three months.
Where you believe the security firm has breached the code of conduct, you will need to advise the member of the breach in writing and require the firm to take remedial action within a specified period. If the member fails to adequately address the breach, your association must take show cause action to initiate disciplinary action against the member, which may include termination of their membership.
Documents you must provide to us
Each year, your association must provide us with certain documents. The documents are to be provided within six months of the anniversary date on which your association became approved (e.g. if your association was approved on 24 February 2011, the documents must be supplied to us by 24 August each year from 2012).
These documents included:
- annual financial statements, including an accountant´s written audit report of the statements
- a declaration of financial viability made under a decision or resolution of your management committee or board of directors and signed by at least one office holder
- a statement by the association´s accountant agreeing with the declaration based on the audited financial statements and the business plan
- a statement about the compliance audits you have undertaken, including details of the number of audits undertaken, the percentage of total members that this number of audits represents and the details of each member audited
- a statement about the operation of your complaint management policy, including the number of complaints received, a description of each complaint and the action taken by you
- a statement that you have reviewed both your complaint management policy and code of conduct (any changes to the code of conduct or the complaint management policy must be approved by us before they are implemented).
You must inform us within 14 days of the end of each month of any security firms who have cancelled their membership with your association, or had their membership terminated by your association and the date on which the membership ended.
If requested, you have 14 days to provide us with a member´s membership application, copies of complaints about a member and documents relating to any breaches of your code of conduct by a member, including a copy of the compliance audit. You must keep these types of documents for seven years, in case we need to request them.
Failure to comply with these reporting requirements may result in your approval as a security industry association being revoked and/or prosecution action being initiated.
Last reviewed 15/03/2012 |
 |
