Who checks emergency drills competency in Qardho?

Emergency drills competency in Qardho is verified by dated drill records, a named responsible person and one observed drill at the site, not by a claim of past experience. A client or procurement team that accepts a verbal answer takes on the risk of delayed incident response, which is a site management problem before it is a medical one.

What can a certificate or a claim actually show?

A certificate shows that someone attended a course at some point, and nothing more. It does not show who will raise the alarm, who will call for transport, or whether the crew knows the route from the far corner of the plot to the gate. On a building site in Qardho, those are local facts about that plot, that access road and that crew. Ask the contractor for the drill log: dates, names, the scenario used, what went wrong and what changed afterwards. A log with no written actions after a drill suggests the drill was a formality. If no log exists, ask the supervisor to describe the last drill on a comparable job, in sequence, from alarm to all-clear. General practice is to repeat drills at intervals set by the project's safety plan, so confirm the interval against that plan or the engineer rather than assuming a fixed number.

How does the gap turn into delayed incident response?

The gap turns into delay when the first minutes of an incident are spent deciding who is in charge. If nobody rehearsed the sequence, the people on site improvise: one worker runs for the gate, another keeps working, and no head count happens. Delay also comes from unspoken assumptions about transport, since a site with no vehicle on standby waits for whatever can be found. Heat adds a second layer, because a worker who collapses from heat stress needs shade and water immediately, and a crew that has never practised moving a casualty will lose time on the mechanics. Ask the contractor and the site's first-aid provider to name the transport and clinic arrangements in the drill plan, then check that the plan records them. Never assume a phone number works until someone calls it during a drill.

How do you detect and close the gap before work starts?

Detection is a records check plus one live test. Request the drill log, the name of the person responsible for safety on site, and the written procedure for alarm, muster and casualty movement. Then watch a drill during mobilisation, when a mistake costs nothing. Time it and note where it stalls. Close the gap by writing the standard into the contract: the alarm method, the muster point, the head count, the transport arrangement and the response time the contractor must meet, with the drill repeated at the interval the safety plan sets. Check what the contract allows for verifying this before you sign, and confirm any technical limit against the project specification or the engineer. If the contractor cannot produce records or run a drill, that is a competency verification gap you can price into the decision rather than discover during an incident.

What to do next

Ask the contractor for the drill log and the site safety procedure this week, then agree a date to watch one drill during mobilisation. Time it, note where it stalls, and ask what changed after the last drill. Put the alarm method, muster point and response time in writing before work starts, and confirm the drill interval with the project's engineer.