Critical Controls - and your Management Structure - Need Competent People

The Critical Control framework signals that the persistence of mining fatalities is not an unsolvable technical problem, but an organisational execution challenge that improved governance and accountability structures can address. Competence is what converts governance structures from paper obligations into operational reality. A CCM program is only as good as the people executing it at every stage - from the Mine Operator setting the threshold to the frontline worker checking the control in the field.

This is precisely where My Competency Expert excels. The CCM framework is the structure, but competence is the mechanism that determines whether it actually functions. Documented controls with incompetent owners don't prevent MUEs - they just create the appearance of management.

Critical controls are only required by legislation in relation to Material Unwanted Events — not every perceived hazard or incident. The operator sets that threshold themselves, but guidance is clear on what the minimum should be.

This threshold framing of MUEs — and by extension critical controls — highlights the importance of the competence of the people responsible for implementing and verifying those critical few controls.

Competence is not just an administrative matter. It's the difference between a control functioning and catastrophically failing.