3.1 The purpose of this standard practice is to provide the minimum requirements for the conduct of compliance audits.

3.2 The intended use of standard is to provide a basis for an internal or external entity to develop an audit program. An audit program defines specific requirements for the execution of audits for a particular objective. An example of an audit program would be an external (third party) audit of LSA manufacturer's quality assurance system.

3.3 Compliance to this standard would insure that audit programs and those who develop and execute them are following a consensus set of minimum requirements.

3.4 This standard does not mandate either internal or external audits.

3.5 An auditing entity cannot request or approve an audit.

3.6 Other Audit Criteria-Other audit criteria may be included in the audit scope if specified in the audit plan. Examples include safety, technical, operational, and management requirements. Items that are outside the scope of auditable criteria may be submitted as observations for possible resolution. However these are not binding and are not mandatory.

3.7 Additional Services-Additional services are outside the scope of an audit objective. Examples of such services are consultation to resolve negative or open findings or any other service where the auditing entity conducts an activity other than an audit for the audited entity.

3.8 Compliance Assurance-An audit is only an indicator of the compliance health of the facility and/or organization during only the period under review and therefore has limited compliance assurance and is not assumed to be exhaustive.

3.9 Level of Review is Variable-The audit scope may vary to meet different audit objectives. For example, the audit scope may include only selected audit criteria, selected period under review, or selected portions of a facility or organization.