145.A.205 Contracting and subcontracting

RESPONSIBILITY WHEN CONTRACTING OR SUBCONTRACTING MAINTENANCE

(a)Regardless of the approval status of the subcontracted organisations, a Part-145 organisation is responsible for ensuring that all subcontracted activities are subject to hazard identification and risk management, as required by point 145.A.200(a)(3), and to compliance monitoring, as required by point 145.A.200(a)(6).

(b)A Part-145 organisation is responsible for identifying hazards that may stem from the existence of complex maintenance arrangements (such as when multiple organisations are contracted, or when multiple levels of contracting/subcontracting are included) with due regard to the organisations’ interfaces (see GM1 145.A.200(a)(3)). In addition, the compliance monitoring function should at least check that the approval of the contracted maintenance organisation(s) effectively covers the contracted activities, and that it is still valid.

(c)A Part-145 organisation is responsible for ensuring that interfaces and communication channels are established with the contracted maintenance organisation(s) for occurrence reporting. This does not replace the obligation of the contracted organisation(s) to report to the competent authority in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 1321/2014. For subcontracted activities, interfaces and communication channels are also needed for the purpose of the internal safety reporting scheme (145.A.202).

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ‘CONTRACTING MAINTENANCE’ AND ‘SUBCONTRACTING MAINTENANCE’

(a)‘Subcontracting maintenance’ means subcontracting to a third party under the maintenance organisation management system. This is the case when a third party carries out certain maintenance tasks on behalf of the Part-145 organisation, and the responsibility remains with the Part-145 organisation (this Part-145 organisation must have the tasks within its scope of approval). Whether the third party is approved or not is not relevant for the designation of subcontracting, since the third party will be working under the management system of the Part-145 organisation, and the maintenance will be released under the approval of this organisation.

(b)‘Contracting maintenance’ means contracting to another maintenance organisation which will release the maintenance under its own approval. This is the case when a Part-145 organisation, contracted to carry out maintenance by an owner/operator/CAMO, further contracts certain maintenance tasks to another approved Part-145 organisation, and transfers the responsibility for the release of such tasks to the second Part-145 organisation. Contracting should only be envisaged when it is allowed by the person or organisation that requests the maintenance.

(c)In case (a), the subcontracted organisation works under the approval of the contracting organisation, whereas in case (b), the contracted organisation works under its own approval.