The Ministry of Labour and Industrial Relations is working towards ISO9001:2008 certification to enhance the service delivery to all Fijians.
More than 20 officials from the ministry are currently undergoing a week-long Lead Auditors Course in Suva so that they are well-versed with the requirements of the quality management system (QMS).
Ministry of Labour permanent secretary, Taito Waqa said the QMS will assist them in being responsive to their customer needs.
“A similar training was conducted at the end of last year and this is a follow through. International Standard Organisation or ISO is an international benchmark for those organisations who want to improve the quality of their management systems,” Mr Waqa said.
“This is to train auditors in the QMS field so that we can be self-sustained from now onwards. There will be examinations and at the end of the workshop, hopefully, those who pass will be able to do internal audit of our quality management system benchmark to ISO 9001.”
Currently, there are about 20-30 organisations that are ISO certified and most of them are from competitive markets such as exporters and manufacturers.
Mr Waqa said taking a lead role in getting ISO certification is reflective of the government’s commitment to satisfying the needs of the citizens of Fiji.
“The Labour Ministry is a service provider and the intent to get ISO certification shows that we want to benchmark our services internationally. There are some statutory bodies too that have been certified like the former Training Productivity Authority of Fiji and the Civil Aviation Authority of Fiji.
“The first government department to be certified was Meteorology because of the international requirements and the information they supply. We want to have a quality management system because it is customer focused. It will shift our culture and attitude towards customer focus,” Mr Waqa added.
Meanwhile, one of facilitators of the training, Mr Jimmy Chua of Asian Productivity Organisation (APO) said the training will equip the officers with effective auditing skills and establish a good quality management system.
“We need to look at what we do and then we check back to see that the plan equals the implementation. In ISO, we need to work according to what we promise to those we serve so that our customers are delighted with our services,” Mr Chua said.
The certification, which will be valid for three years, is expected be done in six months time.
The Lead Auditors training will end next Tuesday 10th December, 2013.