Quality Public Service - ISO 9001 in Local Government

Certification for ISO Standards, particularly ISO 9001, started mainly in large manufacturing companies. As the large companies reaps the benefits of implementing an International Standard, as well as with the growing demand of customer for quality products and services, smaller companies soon followed. Now, even service industries are gearing towards ISO standards implementation and certification.

Local government, though not really a business or commercial institution, is not exempted to this. Local government also has its own costumers who demands quality products and services, internal customers and external customers, the constituents of a particular local government unit.

Local governments are responsible for the management of their established institutions, centers, counties or cities, for the health and safety of their constituents, and for the protection of the environment in which they live. In addition, they face strong pressure to meet regulations from federal, state and local agencies.

In a globalized world, where investment decisions are dependent on how well cities function, good governance and improvement in the quality of urban public goods and services, are taking the front seat, and is gaining more importance. Characteristics of good governance include sustained poverty alleviation, transparency, accountability, efficiency and responsiveness to the needs and concerns of citizens.

The role of ISO 9000 is to provide framework and practical guidelines for the implementation of a widely accepted quality management model, and can serve as the first step towards Total Quality Management. The PDCA (Plan Do Check Act) Model is also applied. It is important for a Local Government to define the processes or systems that they need to provide quality services to their citizens. Example of processes in local government include strategic planning, allocation of resources to provide service, maintaining work environment in good condition, monitoring and assessment of service provision, addressing emergency preparedness and response to crises, determining and assessing performance and competence of personnel providing services, and transparent internal and external communication processes; include citizen involvement that promote communication/dialogue with internal and external parties regarding government issues aspects and performance.

For each process, we should be able to identify:
Who is the customer? Who receives the outputs of the process? It may be an internal “customer”, in a different area/section but the same local government. Or an external “customer,” such as citizen receiving the service.
What are the main inputs to the process? Information, Local or national or regional government policies, legal requirements, machine, material, energy, human and financial resources
The desired outputs? Define the characteristics of the service to be provided.

Although developed for the business and private sector, these guidelines may also be applied to government agencies, offices, bureaus and organizations. By implementing a quality management system, a local government unit or office can direct and control its activities, in order to satisfy the needs and expectations of the local community. Through Planning, Operational controls, Resources Management and Documentation, Quality Objectives are achieved and continual improvement of the products and services that are being provided is attained.

Though the concept of applying quality standards to government functions is relatively new, implementation of a quality management system based on ISO 9000 standard has been applied in a few countries of the region; some countries have adopted ISO 9001 as their national standard.

Whatever the driving forces, be it greater focus on public satisfaction, or the need to change outmoded attitudes to public service, the increasing willingness to install modern quality and environmental management systems for local governments is a very positive steps towards higher customer satisfaction and, hopefully translates to economic recovery and further growth.