A “People’s Voice” success story: Lutsk gets the ISO 9001:2000 International Quality Certificate

For three years now, the “People’s Voice” project being implemented by ICPS has been instituting best practice in municipal management in the cities and towns participating in this project. Project efforts have always been aimed at encouraging local authorities to provide only high quality services to their communities. After an international conference devoted to the evaluation and standardization of municipal service provision was held by People’s Voice in 2004, the cities of Komsomolsk and Makiyivka received certificates confirming that their systems of service delivery comply with international ISO 9001:2000 standards. Lutsk became the third project city to receive this significant international certificate.

Over July–December 2006, the Lutsk City Administration together with the Young Democracy Foundation (Poland) implemented a project called “Through Quality to Transparency.” The main purpose of this project was to promote transparency in the work of Lutsk City Hall by introducing the Quality Management System, which complies with the international ISO 9001:2000 standard.

Under the “Through Quality to Transparency” project, a number of innovations were introduced in Lutsk: an Information Point was set up in the City Administration, the place where the first contact between a citizen and city officials generally takes place; information signs and materials were prepared with step-by-step instructions on what a citizen should do in order to solve a problem when applying to the municipality.

All these innovations promote clear and understandable principles of interaction between a resident and the City Administration. Residents receive detailed information on their issues, they know the terms under which an application will be considered and a decision on it made. Thus, any possibility of misunderstanding or abuse of power is eliminated. In addition, the introduction of the Quality Management System helped to systematize documentation. This had consisted of nearly 100 instructions and description of administrative decision-making procedures, job descriptions, and information cards for the customers, that is, city residents. Finally, a Quality Policy and Quality Book were adopted as the major documents regulating principles and ethics of Lutsk City Administration work.

Also, during the project implementation an electronic system of document flow was introduced in the City Administration. This system enables the total computerization of document processing procedures, both internal and external communication, planning of staff work, monitoring of task implementation, and identification of documents through bar coding.

Having completed the work on documenting the Quality Management System, the Lutsk City Administration conducted an internal audit in order to verify its system, make any necessary adjustments, and take appropriate preventive measures. However, the culmination point of the entire project was an external audit of the system by auditors from an independent certification organization called TUV Rheinland INTERCERT (Poland). Auditors gave the system an excellent grade and their decision was unanimous: they agreed to grant Lutsk City Administration the ISO 9001:2000 International Quality Certificate.

The catch is that an ISO certificate is never granted forever. Every year, independent experts conduct a monitoring audit in order to control the observance of ISO requirements, and every three years a certified organization needs to go through the entire process of certification again. In addition, an organization possessing such a certificate needs to demonstrate to auditors its own improvements to and innovations in the Quality Management System.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) was set up by delegates from 26 countries in 1947. This is a global federation of national standardization bodies, that is, committees that are ISO members. Its main objective is to help develop globally recognized standards, rules and similar documents with the aim to facilitate international exchange of goods and services in all economic sectors.

The ISO 9001:2000 Standard is an international standard that summarizes advanced global experience in production and service management.

The “People’s Voice” project slated for completion in 2007 is being implemented by ICPS, the World Bank and PADCO, a consultancy, with the financial support of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

For additional information, contact Maria Kryvoruchko by telephone at (380-44) 484-4408 and 484-4409 or via e-mail at mkryvoruchko@icps.kiev.ua .