Sadly (?) CASA is misnamed - It should be CARA.. they are more interested in
Regulation than
Safety.
You can be 100% compliant and far from safe, yet you can operate a very safe operation and not be totally compliant. There are some compliant companies that as an auditor I would think twice before traveling with. Tell me how you assess & regulate "culture"?
This exercise has been driven by the major resource companies such as BHP and is placing the auditing into a standard that is acceptable to those users and has the potential flow on of actually reducing the number of audits that some companies undergo from that sector. Most of the GA companies that provide services to the mining/resource sector are already subject to regular audits and for them it will be no different. BARS does provide the prospect that the number of such audits will reduce which I am sure those GA companies will welcome.
Like others have said; the end result will be good for GA and will lift the bar in a way that CAS(R)A cannot.
Further:
IATA have been conducting IOSA audits now for some years with great success. This is really a mini version of that process. An IOSA audit puts 5 auditors on site for 5 days and usually costs about ~US$60k which the airline pays for. They have to have the audit every 2 yrs to remain a member of IATA. BARS audits, I understand, will take two days and have 2 auditors on site, so costs I would guess be about $4k plus travel and expenses etc. But this is a guess...