Gov’t Entities to be ISO 9001-Certified

The Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries is spearheading implementation of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001 Quality Management System across priority agencies of Government.

This is according to Portfolio Minister, Hon. Audley Shaw, who was opening the 2018/19 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday (May 1).

The 10 agencies under the Ministry are among the entities that are expected to be ISO 9001-certified. Mr. Shaw said “it will not be business as usual under this engagement”.

“When an agency becomes ISO 9001-certified, it must operate at a higher level… (and) also demonstrate continual improvement to avoid losing its certification. What this means is (that) we are raising the quality of public service to a higher level,” he pointed out.

Meanwhile, Mr. Shaw has welcomed the Companies Office of Jamaica’s (COJ) introduction of the Electronic Business Name Registration Programme.

This online facility will realise savings of $3,250 to persons who utilise it to register a business name.

“Entrepreneurs can now reserve and register a business name for a sole proprietor, partnership and corporate sole proprietor in the comfort of their home using the online service,” he pointed out.
Mr. Shaw said the registration of sole proprietors represents 77 per cent of all the COJ’s enterprise registration.

“This is good… but using the ISO principle of ‘continuous improvement’, this is not enough. We are insistent that we must achieve 100 per cent online enterprise registration. We are now heading for online reservation and registration under the Companies Act. This will be rolled out later in the fiscal year,” he told the House.