Over the past month the team at DWS have received quite a few worried phone calls from local Brisbane based venues dealing with on-the-spot audits. Clients have been visited by the Police or OLGR inspectors, in some cases both and often followed up with another visit a week later.
The manager on duty has tentatively produced the folder and low and behold Jenny’s RSA has expired, John has missed the RMLV sign in, nobody has seen the RAMP since it was submitted and don’t even mention the security register.
Even when you think everything is being done to the mark, a few sticky questions later you can find that some staff are not committed to the systems, training has missed the mark or the most common problem we encounter that sufficient records just are not in place to back up your systems and procedures.
While customers view hospitality as a razzle dazzle industry the reality is that licensees have a serious responsibility, to patrons, to employees and to the wider community to provide a safe environment and not to exert any negative impact on the local area by way of noise pollution or disruptive patrons, a task which is much easier said than done.
Over the years this has resulted in a long list of regulation, guidelines, procedures, plans and license conditions which are difficult to keep abreast of. How many of your employees would know the conditions on your licence? I would hazard a guess that some employees have never even looked at the licence in the venue and yet those trading conditions are an essential foundation of your business being allowed to operate a liquor licence.
With this in mind the licensing consultants at DWS have put together a quick licensing audit assessment. The first aspect of the audit is a desktop review of documentation and policies which a venue currently has in place such as your RAMP, staff manual, specific procedures and your licence document. This desktop audit is then followed up by an onsite audit to go through record keeping and quiz staff as if it were a real audit scenario.
The outcome of the audit is a report showing the areas where the venue is compliant and non-compliant and a section providing recommendations for recourse. While we would recommend that you conduct regular audits yourself within your own venue an independent audit is a valuable exercise to run through to provide you with peace of mind and ensure that your licence is in safe hands.
If you need licensing advice or would like to book in for an independent licence audit please contact Danny Nixon-Smith.
