Davao city govt offices to be audited before year-end

The Quality Management System (QMS) Internal Quality Audit Team of the City Government of Davao is currently reviewing and assessing the operational processes and procedures of city government offices.

From the delivery of public services, day-to-day transactions, document tracking, to target monitoring, the city government’s 52 offices encompass a total of 308 processes—each of which will be inspected, assessed, and evaluated by the Internal Quality Audit Team to determine whether these are executed according to the ISO 9001:2015 standards.

Being the first local government unit of a highly urbanized city to be holistically ISO-certified, the City Government of Davao is fully committed to abide by the standards to further streamline its systems, exemplify “Ease of Doing Business,” and perform with the highest degree of excellence.

Internal Quality Audit Team Leader Genevieve Gamueta, in an interview with the City Information Office, said the city government already has a system in place that, more or less, conforms with the ISO QMS standards.

But with the certification, she continued, it has improved the system such as standardization of the control on documents and records, drafting of the Operating Procedure for all processes, centralized gathering of customer feedback and analysis thereof, and implementation of the Quality Workplace Standards, among others.

Gamueta said the offices are notified at least one week before the audit, by which time a group of auditors will inspect the office’s procedures and practices through various standardized methods.

The auditors will interview the auditees and use standardized questionnaires and checklists. Documents are also reviewed while transactions and procedures may be demonstrated. The audit can also be executed without human intervention through site visits where auditors will merely observe.

After the audit, the office’s best practices as well as minor deviations to the standards or Opportunities for Improvement (OFI) will be highlighted in the Audit Findings Report, Gamueta explained.

Due to the intricacy of the whole auditing process, as well as the great number of office procedures to be assessed, Gamueta said the Internal Quality Audit intends to train at least 20 more people to add to their pool of 36 auditors.

Gamueta added that maintaining the ISO 9001:2015 Certification is emblematic of the city government’s determination to deliver world-class public service to the Dabawenyos. CIO