Auditor General’s Department ISO 9001 certified

The Auditor General’s Department (AGD), is now the fourth Government entity that has been certified to the ISO 9001-2015 Quality Management System (QMS) Standard by the National Certification Body of Jamaica (NCBJ).

This follows the entity’s completion of the sixteen-month preparatory process, which included a two-stage audit.

Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce, Hon. Audley Shaw, who has portfolio responsibility for the NCBJ, officially presented the ISO 9001 certificate to Auditor General, Pamela Munroe Ellis, at the handover ceremony at the Sts. Peter & Paul Church Hall, 120 Old Hope Road, Kingston, on Thursday (December 17).

Minister Shaw, in commending the Auditor General’s Department, said that he was pleased to see that the trend of ISO certification is catching on among government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

“There seems to be a race to get out of the blocks among MDAs and this can only augur well for our quest, as a country, to become world-class in customer service and the quality of our goods and services. There is a popular saying among us Jamaicans that whatever we do, we do it well. If we are doing something good, we do it well and if we are doing something bad, we do it well. The thrust to improve service delivery and increase our global competitiveness is therefore something that I am sure we will continue to do well,” Minister Shaw said.

He added that when an organization decides to implement a standard as a policy, it transforms the relevant operating modalities of that organization and that is what the government is going for, a transformation among MDAs that is anchored  by a desire to ‘be better and ‘to do better’.

Meanwhile, Auditor General, Pamela Munro-Ellis said that she was elated to be among the MDAs to have become ISO 9001 certified.

“The quality management framework should not be viewed as an additional layer to governance structure.  It is not an additional step added to the things that you have to do, but rather an additional means by which quality is embedded in your business processes. The ISO 9001-2015 Quality Standard enhances the governance of jobs to ensure that all resources are utilized in a meaningful and efficient way, and achieve the targets set out in the organisation’s strategic plan,” Mrs. Munroe-Ellis said.

The AGD is among the 18 of an initial 40 ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) earmarked for ISO certification, through collaboration between the Ministries of Industry, Investment and Commerce, and Finance and the Public Service and facilitated under the World Bank-funded Strategic Public Sector Transformation Project.

Chairman, Public Accounts Committee of Parliament, Julian Robinson; NCBJ Manager, Navenia Wellington Ford; World Bank Resident Representative, Nikeisha Russell; and ISO Standards Ambassador, Reginald Budhan, were among the other officials and guests attending the certification ceremony.

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