GPR 8715.1.pdf

DIRECTIVE NO. GPR 8715.1E APPROVED BY Signature: Original Signed By

EFFECTIVE DATE: August 26, 2019 NAME: Eric K. Isaac

EXPIRATION DATE: August 26, 2024 TITLE: Director, Safety and Mission Assurance

CHECK THE GSFC DIRECTIVES MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AT

http://gdms.gsfc.nasa.gov/gdmsnew/home.jsp TO VERIFY THAT THIS IS THE CORRECT VERSION PRIOR TO USE.

08/16

Goddard Procedural Requirements (GPR)

COMPLIANCE IS MANDATORY

Responsible Office: 360/Safety Division

Title: Processing of NASA Safety Reporting System (NSRS) Incident Reports

REVALIDATED W/ADMIN CHANGES 08/26/2019

PREFACE

P.1 PURPOSE

This procedure defines the implementation of the NASA Safety Reporting System at Goddard Space

Flight Center (GSFC).

P.2 APPLICABILITY

a. The provisions of this directive are applicable to all GSFC employees and to all GSFC Contractors to the extent incorporated into their respective contracts through the inclusion of NFS1852.223-70 and provisions implementing this system.

b. In this directive, all document citations are assumed to be the latest version unless otherwise noted.

c. In this directive, all mandatory actions (i.e., requirements) are denoted by statements containing the term “shall.” The terms “may” or “can” denote discretionary privilege or permission; “should” denotes a good practice and is recommended but not required; “will” denotes expected outcome; and

“are/is” denotes descriptive material.

P.3 AUTHORITY

NPR 8715.3, NASA General Safety Program Requirements

P.4 APPLICABLE DOCUMENTS AND FORMS

OMB No. 2700-0063, NASA Safety Reporting Form

P.5 CANCELLATION

GPR 8715.1D, Processing of NASA Safety Reporting System (NSRS) Incident Reports

DIRECTIVE NO. GPR 8715.1E Page 2 of 9

EFFECTIVE DATE: August 26, 2019

EXPIRATION DATE: August 26, 2024

P.6 SAFETY

None.

P.7 TRAINING

Information on the NSRS is available at http://www.nasa.gov/audience/safety/reporting/Safety_reporting.html.

P.8 RECORDS

None.

P.9 MEASUREMENT/VERIFICATION

To comply with NASA HQ NSRS response times, all investigation and response milestone dates will be recorded. These dates will be used to calculate response metrics.

PROCEDURES

1. Background

The NASA Safety Reporting System (NSRS) has been created to supplement standard safety reporting channels with a confidential means of reporting concerns. The NSRS is available to ensure that safety concerns are reported whenever they are perceived to be ignored, inadequately resolved, or involve extenuating circumstances, such as fear of reprisal from reporting such concerns. (See Appendix D for a cross-functional map that depicts implementation of NSRS incident reporting).

All NASA and contractor employees are encouraged to initially use safety-reporting mechanisms available at their work sites. When these systems do not provide satisfactory results, the NSRS can be utilized. All reported NSRS issues shall be investigated and investigative reports written.

Goddard Code 360 will coordinate installation of the NSRS posters and form holders in all staffed facilities at GSFC Greenbelt. Goddard Code 803 will do the same for Wallops facilities. Code 360/803 will visit all on site locations quarterly and restock with forms when necessary.

1.1 Confidentiality

To ensure confidentiality, a third party NSRS contractor organization receives the reported safety concern, ensuring that within the NASA organization the source of the report is never known. Although personal information is included on the submittal form, it is physically removed and returned via U.S.

Mail, verifying to the sender that the concern has been officially received and entered into the NSRS.

http://www.nasa.gov/audience/safety/reporting/Safety_reporting.html

DIRECTIVE NO. GPR 8715.1E Page 3 of 9

After that point, the reported concern has no traceability to the reporting individual and there is no further communication with the reporter except for one short initial period to ask questions of the originator via the secure third party. For confirmation of process change due to the safety report, the reporting individual will need to look for evidence of procedural change in the area reported.

1.2 Report submission

Form OMB No. 2700-0063 is used to report safety concerns to the third party NSRS contractor.

Complete instructions and the form are available in each staffed building and on the Internet at:

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/codeq/nsrs/index.htm. The NSRS program does not accept reports by telephone or email.

1.3 Report dissemination and tracking

The NSRS contractor forwards reported issues to NASA HQ, Office of Safety and Mission Assurance, for immediate analysis and investigation. The Center involved in the issue is then identified and contacted for transmission of the issue. The Goddard contact and recipient is the NASA Goddard Safety

& Mission Assurance (SMA) Director who will assign the appropriate Goddard organization to respond to the reported issues. NASA HQ maintains a file on all open NSRS issues pending resolution and closure.

NSRS issues are securely transmitted via encrypted e-mail to and from NASA HQ. The GSFC point of contact is contacted about a Goddard report, and coordinates confidential transmission and receipt of the report. The recipient advises HQ upon successful receipt. Received NSRS Incident Reports are kept in a secure file as part of Code 360/803’s required records during the investigation.

Tracking of investigation progress and closure is done by both Code 300 and the NASA HQ NSRS

Office.

Some NSRS investigations may require coordination with the NASA IG Office. Draft and final investigation reports by Goddard team may be forwarded to the IG. The Goddard investigation team however should not play any role that mimics the IG investigation. Coordination of information between the Goddard team and the IG may be expected and encouraged if issues should overlap.

1.4 Issue Investigation

Code 360/803 assesses and validates issues upon receipt to determine the appropriate investigation approach and notifies NASA HQ within thirty (30) days of receipt that the investigation has been initiated or completed. Code 360/803 investigates issues determined to be simple or non-critical, whereas a team shall investigate complex or critical issues. Code 360/803 with the concurrence of the

GSFC SMA Director shall identify members of such a team, who shall be officially tasked by the GSFC

SMA Director or his/her designee in a letter of appointment (see Appendix C).

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/codeq/nsrs/index.htm

DIRECTIVE NO. GPR 8715.1E Page 4 of 9

08/16

The owner of the process (affected area/activity supervisor or manager) under investigation shall support the investigation, ensuring that the context within which the issue exists is clearly understood. The process owner shall also participate in the identification of corrective actions.

The investigation shall culminate in an Investigative Report containing findings, recommended actions, and the names of the investigators. The Investigative Report is submitted to the GSFC SMA Director and upon acceptance and signoff is submitted to NASA HQ. The responsible contracting officer for contract matters and the GSFC SMA Director for all other matters are ultimately responsible for ensuring corrective actions of issue(s) on the Incident Report. They shall rely on Code 360/803 to perform an evaluation of the corrective action(s) and the effectiveness of these action(s) to ensure the issue(s) reported in the NSRS Incident Report have been adequately addressed and resolved.

1.5 Verification

Within a three-month period after development of the investigation report, Code 360/803 shall evaluate the effects of corrective actions recommended. If the corrective action(s) are not adequate or not implemented, a report shall be issued to the GSFC SMA Director to restart the corrective action process.

For satisfactory resolution of issue(s), the GSFC SMA Director shall send the investigation report to

NASA HQ recommending that the issue be closed.

1.6 Responses

Both the official response report from Goddard and the follow-up response to any recommendations implemented will be responded to NASA HQ via the GSFC SMA Director. Issue-related discussions with NASA HQ by the respective Code 360/803 assigned response team are expected and encouraged.

DIRECTIVE NO. GPR 8715.1E Page 5 of 9

Appendix A – Definitions

A1. NSRS (NASA Safety Reporting System) – A confidential, voluntary, and responsive safety reporting system that provides a direct channel for NASA employees and contractors to anonymously notify the NASA Headquarters Safety and Assurance Requirements Division of safety concerns.

A2. NSRS Contractor – A third party organization that receives NSRS Incident Reports from GSFC employees and contractors, removes information pertaining to the identity of the reporting individual, records in the NSRS system, and forwards the NSRS report to NASA Headquarters.

DIRECTIVE NO. GPR 8715.1E Page 6 of 9

Appendix B – Acronyms

GSFC Goddard Space Flight Center

IG Inspector General

NRRS National Records Retention Schedule

NSRS NASA Safety Reporting System

SMA Safety and Mission Assurance

DIRECTIVE NO. GPR 8715.1E Page 7 of 9

Appendix C – Sample Appointment Letter

March 2, 2001

TO: Investigation Team Members

FROM: 300

SUBJECT: NASA Safety Reporting System (NSRS) Investigation Board

Appointments--System Incident Report

On January 26, 2001, Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) received an incident report through the

NASA Safety Reporting System. The incident report covers slips and falls due to hazardous conditions connected with flooring material installed in Building 11 stairwells. In addition, there have been numerous other slips and falls connected with floor conditions inside of GSFC buildings during inclement weather. We are convening a team, under the direction of the NSRS Program Coordinator, to investigate the NSRS reported incident and the other recent incidents of slips and falls. The team shall investigate these and determine the conditions and causes of this hazard and recommend viable ways of eliminating or at least greatly reducing this problem. The team members are:

Member 1, Code 300, Team Leader

Member 2, Code 227

Member 3, Code 240

Member 4, Code 220 (LB&B)

In addition, Mr. Smith, NSRS Program Coordinator, will serve as a consultant to your team.

During your team investigation you will report to me. You should consider this task to have a very high priority. If additional resources are necessary, please contact Mr. Smith or me to resolve the issues.

If you have any further questions about this process, please contact Mr. Smith on extension 6-0000.

Eric K. Isaac

DIRECTIVE NO. GPR 8715.1E Page 8 of 9

Appendix D – GSFC NSRS Investigation Process Flow Diagram

GSFC Code 300 receives complaint report from NASA

HQ/NSRS. Contacts appropriate Goddard Code for response.

Goddard responsible Code receives complaint report, validates issues. Identifies investigation method and team, and prepares appointment letter as needed.

GSFC Code

300 signs appointment letter if needed.

GSFC Team submits report to GSFC Code

300 for signoff and submittal to NASA

HQ/ NSRS.

GSFC Team performs an investigation of allegations.

Support as needed from other GSFC Codes.

GSFC Team works with NASA HQ/

NSRS on acceptability of draft report.

Based on approved recommendations, GSFC

Team establishes a plan for implementation.

NASA HQ/NSRS asks for further investigatin and/or analysis of investigation in report.

GSFC Code 300 submits closure letter to NASA

HQ/NSRS

NASA HQ/NSRS Review Team closes NSRS complaint.

Not approved

Approved

DIRECTIVE NO. GPR 8715.1E Page 9 of 9

CHANGE HISTORY LOG

Revision Effective Date Description of Changes

Baseline 04/18/02 Initial Release

A 02/18/05

As directed during the FY04 Center Rules Review, the

Responsible Office modified this document to remove requirements that were no longer needed and to clearly distinguish requirements from supporting information.

Administrative changes were made throughout to correct responsible organization names and codes, and to retitle

Goddard Procedures and Guidelines (GPG) to Goddard

Procedural Requirements (GPR). All changes were reviewed and approved by the Goddard Quality Management System

Council (QMSC).

B 05/07/07 Administrative changes were made throughout to correct responsible organization names and codes, and to include

Wallops NSRS POC.

C 08/13/09 The GPR now establishes and solidifies the NSRS role of the

NASA Goddard Assistant Director for Safety and Security. This

GPR also tries to document how the process between Goddard

NSRS and NASA HQ NSRS actually operates. Appendix B was replaced with a new Process Flow Diagram that also reflects how the actual process works. The GPR now reflects the

Greenbelt Goddard Office of System Safety Code 321 designation replacing the Code 302 designation that had also included Reliability.

D 04/04/2012 Administratively Revised to update the Responsible Office

Code, Organization Title and organization name within the document.

D 08/06/2014 Administratively Extended for 1 year.

D 08/27/2014 Revalidated – corrected administrative changes to show responsible organization within the document

E 08/26/2019 Revalidation with Administrative Revision to minimize requirements, updated organization name and code and updated

GPR template.