OREANDA-NEWS. September 19, 2008. The Refinery AB Mazeikiu Nafta has been issued a Certificate of Occupational Health and Safety Management System OHSAS 18001 Standard. The document crowned the consistent and purposeful work which lasted for a year and a half, reported the press-centre of Mazeikiu Nafta.

The Certificate was issued by the independent auditing organization Bureau Veritas Lit. Gintaras Gavenas, the Director of the auditing company, handed the certificate to Marek Mroczkowski, the General Director of AB Mazeikiu Nafta.

M. Mroczkowski, General Director, stated that the implementation of the OHSAS management system was an exclusively smooth process, irrespective of the fact that implementation of the system at such a complicated organization with a large number of processes (like our Company) is not simple.

“We talk a lot about modernization. I hear about modernization of production process and units more and more often. But what you resolved to do with the management systems is, indeed, large and advance modernization of management. And it is very important because we are here speaking about people and about processes which create value for the company. You do the management modernization with respect to the three: environmental protection, occupational safety and quality”, said G. Gavenas, head of Bureau Veritas Lit.

“The new thing is that the company has a safety and health policy developed which (the policy) states the company’s obligation to take care of safety at the company and is the basis for setting of the company’s objectives which the company has undertaken to pursue”, stated Mykolas Zalunskis, Safety Manager of AB Mazeikiu Nafta.  When preparing the policy and setting the objectives, the most problematic aspects of the company were considered.

Upon the above taken into consideration, according to M. Zalunskis, the program for noise reduction at workplaces and risk assessment at workplaces have been anticipated, attention to walkways, lighting, etc. has been drawn. All the above items which require for investment have been included into the company's five-year budget. These are specific future plans which specify the required funds – investments related to occupational safety; the to-be-allocated funds will amount to more than one million litas.

“The company, which complies with the OHSAS 18001 requirements, has more organizational capacities to improve its operational efficiency by ensuring minimum number of accidents at work as well as time losses resulting from such, not mentioning the purely human losses which are always priceless.

What is more, risks associated with occupational safety and health are now easier to manage when setting certain goals or tasks and ensuring pursuance thereof. Besides, the company, which complies with the OHSAS 18001 requirements and holds the certificate proving this, can not only improve its image in the eyes of the society, clients and business world in general, but also induce the employees’ motivation and confidence in the company so it is easier to retain the currently-working qualified employees as well as attract new ones”, said Aloyzas Miksys, Certification Manager of Bureau Veritas Lit.

According to auditors from Bureau Veritas Lit, when auditing the company Mazeikiu Nafta, they noticed the strong occupational-safety-&-health culture which had been developed in a run of years. The managers’ and employees’ aim to proceed with the development of a safe working environment with the help of the internationally-acknowledged management standard provided favourable conditions for successful implementation and certification of the occupational safety and health management system. This implies that the management system will, indeed, be efficient at the company and will positively contribute to the general results of the company.

In July, AB Mazeikiu Nafta was issued the ISO 14001 environmental management system certificate. The two recently implemented management systems operate as a single joint system.