Dolyna and Ivano-Frankivsk municipalities (Ivano-Frankivsk Region), May, 17-18: UNDP project “Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme” held a seminar for disseminating experience in introducing municipal services quality management system (QMS) according to the international standard ISO 9001:2008 in the partner municipalities. Experts and representatives of the municipalities of Dolyna, Ivano-Frankivsk (Ivano-Frankivsk Region), Vinnytsa, Berdyansk (Zaporizhzhia Region), and Novograd-Volynskiy (Zhytomyr Region) presented experience of introduction of QMS for raising comfort of the residents in receiving the services of the City Council. City Mayors and delegated representatives from 18 City Councils of Ukraine had an opportunity to learn and adopt this experience.
Today, the practice of introducing municipal services quality management system (QMS) in Ukraine is not common. Little more than 10 Ukrainian municipalities passed external audit and have been certified by international certification agencies in accordance with the requirements of ISO 9001, including such municipalities as Berdyansk (Zaporizhzhia Region), Ivano-Frankivsk , Dolyna (Ivano-Frankivsk Region), Lutsk, Kovel (Volyn region), Voznesensk (Mykolayiv Region), Novograd Volynskyy, Korosten (Zhytomyr Region), Makiyivka (Donetsk Region), Konotop (Sumy Region), Alchevsk (Luhansk Region), Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsia, Poltava, Kremenchug (Poltava Region).
According to Ukrainian legislation, local self-governance bodies should provide quality services to population and be oriented in their activities on consumers of these services. Introducing QMS in accordance with ISO 9001:2008 allows local self-governance bodies constantly improve the processes related to servicing the residents and raise efficiency of operation.
Therefore, UNDP Project “Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme” (UNDP/MGSDP) provides support to Ukrainian municipalities for introducing projects on QMS. Currently, 4 City Councils of Project`s partner municipalities received such support. The first pilot project for introduction of QMS in executive bodies of Voznesensk City Council (Mykolaiv region) was implemented in 2007. In 2009, the cities of Novograd -Volynskiy, Kirovske and Dolyna implemented such projects (in the context of cooperation with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation).
During the seminar organised by UNDP/MGSDP on May 17-18 in Dolyna and Ivano-Frankivsk municipalities, the focal points on QMS from the City Councils of Voznesensk, Dolyna, Novograd Volynskiy, Kirovske presented their experience and answered the questions of their colleagues who are planning similar initiatives .
Opening the seminar, Volodymyr Garazd, Mayor of Dolyna pointed out that introduction of QMS primarily benefited for residents of the city. Indeed, by organising the system of work of the City Council, the processes are treated equally by all specialists of the City Council. The system ISO 9001:2008 ensures the accomplishment of the specified requirements by specialists. Therefore, Dolyna local authorities set the direction to continuous improvement of the overall indexes of operation of the City Council.
The specialists of executive bodies of Novograd-Volynskiy City Council passed all the trainings and seminars successfully, according to requirements for the introduction of ISO 9001:2008, as well as internal and external audits and received a certificate of the international certification company. Mykhailo Makarchuk, Head of department of licensing and permissions of the City Council told this in his speech. In addition, the city has established "one stop shop" - the structure of the City Council, which guarantees direct work with clients, when all processes associated with services are conducted within the executive body or directly between the executives without the client participation. The next step for improving the quality of services provided by executive bodies of the City Council and local executive bodies of Novograd-Volynskiy for physical and juridical persons in the City Council is the establishment of the Center for administrative services provision.
Experts stressed the importance of adherence of the management to the ideas of changes in organisation. That is, the willingness of management to increase efficient operation, to systematize the executive committee work, to improve the external image of the municipality are much more important than tools and instruments adopted. Qualitatively implemented QMS system provides faster access to information in organisation, integration of staff, better atmosphere at work, informing investors from different regions on advantages of the city.
Lead auditor TÜV SÜD, Pavlo Pidhayets said: "Local self-government bodies should constantly improve themselves for the effective implementation of own and delegated responsibilities and the meeting increasing expectations of members of communities. That is why the modern requirements to the operation of local government are based on the effective standards of the International Organization of Certification for quality management.
The seminar was attended by Volodymyr Garazd, the Mayor of Dolyna; Iryna Skaliy, Project Manager of UNDP/MGSDP; the representative of the State Committee of Ukraine for Technical Regulation and Consumer Policy system (Maryna Lavrentieva, Consultant of the SE “Dniprostandartmetrolohiya"); consultants of introduction of QMS (Valeriy Huliy, "Centre for Development Support”, Igor Bryhylevych,"Center for Local Government Studies», Tadeusz Sabik, the Polish-Ukrainian Group of Guality), Pavlo Pidhayets, leading auditor of TÜV SÜD, City Mayors and their authorized representatives from 18 municipalities of Ukraine.
In 2010 UNDP/MGSDP will provide support for projects on QMS in Lviv and Dzhankoy (AR Crimea) and will include a separate module on QMS to training course for municipal servants “Decentralisation and Effective Local Self-Governance”.
For more details, please, contact www.msdp.undp.org.ua, Galyna Smirnova, Monitoring and Communications Officer of UNDP/MGSDP, by tel. (044) 253 5068 or via e-mail: galyna.smirnova at undp.org.ua
For more details, please, contact www.msdp.undp.org.ua, Galyna Smirnova, Monitoring and Communications Officer of UNDP/MGSDP, by tel. (044) 253 5068 or via e-mail: galyna.smirnova at undp.org.ua
