Contractor Verification
How do you verify contractor inspections?
You verify contractor inspections by specifying the scope and the required evidence before work starts, requiring proof for each item rather than a summary report, checking the contractor's competence and independence, and sampling that evidence against the contract. What you are confirming is that the specified work was performed, not that a report was delivered. Agree the evidence format up front; after the fact, you are negotiating.
Engaging a contractor transfers the work, not your interest in whether it was done. OSHA's multi-employer citation policy makes a related point in a safety context: an employer with general supervisory authority over a worksite is expected to exercise reasonable care to prevent and detect violations, and how closely it should look depends partly on what it knows about the other employer's track record.
The Controls That Matter
Five controls that do most of the work
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Put the asset list, the per-item evidence requirement and the exception format in the contract, not the kick-off meeting.
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Verify competence at the organisation level. For electrical testing, NETA accredits testing companies and publishes maintenance and acceptance testing specifications; check the accreditation rather than the logo.
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Ask whether the inspector has an interest in what the inspection finds: for instance, because the same firm performed the work being inspected.
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Require exceptions. A zero-exception report across a large estate is usually a flag rather than a comfort.
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Sample a handful of items end to end. Sampling is what makes the evidence requirement real.
A Practical Example
A quarterly infrared survey of forty panels
A PDF stating that all equipment was surveyed and no anomalies were found; it cannot be distinguished from a survey that covered thirty.
Carries, per panel: the asset identifier, a thermal image with that identifier legible, the timestamp, the load at the time of survey (infrared detects heat generated by current flow, so a survey at light load can miss a real fault), the technician's identity, and an explicit entry for any panel not surveyed, with the reason.
The Distinction
Accreditation vs. proof
One distinction is worth holding onto: an accreditation confirms that an organisation is competent to do the work. It does not confirm that a particular inspection took place.
Where FacilityOps Sits
How FacilityOps fits
FacilityOps AI is the record layer for the recurring, no-outage inspection work performed on live equipment. Offline testing that needs a planned outage belongs to NETA-accredited firms; FacilityOps does not perform it and is not a competitor for it. What it gives the facility side is a consistent evidence standard to hold contracted work against.
This page describes what published standards establish and refers to them by name. It is not a substitute for any of them.
Cited Sources
Sources / References
US Department of Labor. The source of the controlling-employer point above: the duty to exercise reasonable care to prevent and detect violations, and the factors bearing on how closely to look, including what is known about the other employer's safety history and practices.
InterNational Electrical Testing Association. Supports the statement that NETA publishes maintenance testing and acceptance testing specifications for electrical power equipment and systems.
Sets out how to confirm that a company's NETA accreditation is current, which is what the advice above refers to.