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Organizations
International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance 2012.
Chapter 6
Quality Management Systems
and their Contribution to the
Integrity of Elections
Chapter 6
Mara T. Mellenkamp and Pablo Gutirrez
ISO 9001 falls within this set of standards. Over the years, QMS standards
such as ISO 90012 have been successfully applied to different organizations to
help improve their ability to increase customer satisfaction and meet statutory
requirements, and to provide methods for establishing responsibilities in an
organization, resource management, and service delivery and improvement.
Quality management principles
There are eight quality management principles on which the QMS standards
of the ISO 9000 series are based:3
1) Client orientation: organizations should understand current and future
customer needs, should meet customer requirements and should strive
to exceed customer expectations.
2) Leadership: leaders establish unity of purpose and the direction
of the organization. They should create and maintain an internal
environment in which people can become fully involved in achieving
the organizations objectives.
3) Involvement of staff: staff at all levels are the essence of an organization
and their full involvement enables their abilities to be used for the
organizations benefit.
4) Process-based approach: a desired result is achieved more efficiently
when activities and related resources are managed as a process.
5) Systems approach to management: identifying, understanding and
managing interrelated processes as a system contributes to the
organizations effectiveness and efficiency in achieving its objectives.
6) Continual improvement: continual improvement of the organizations
overall performance should be a permanent objective of the
organization.
7) Factual approach to decision making: effective decisions are based on the
analysis of data and information.
8) Mutually beneficial supplier relationships: an organization and its
suppliers are interdependent and a mutually beneficial relationship
enhances the ability of both to create value.
These principles can be used by senior management as a framework to guide
their organizations towards performance improvement. They also serve as
guides to understand the dynamics to be adopted by an institution that is
to implement a QMS, as well as to determine the gaps in an institution at
a given moment and the changes needed in order to comply with the ISO
standard.
Plan
Organization to
Certify
Certifying entity
Accreditation entity
IATCA
Do
Diagnose, train,
implement, conduct
follow ups and correct
the strategy and its
implementation
Check
Supports in receiving
certification audits (not
required in audits, but
it is a good practice of
consulting firms)
Conducts Certification
audits .. Pre-Audit
Receives Certification
Audit Phase I
audits by the certifying
(Documentation)
entity
Audit Phase II
(Operational)
Act
Establishes plans of
Support the
action and correct
organization addressing
nonconformities (if
nonconformities (if any)
any) to achieve a
to achieve a certificayion
certification
Results
Accredits the
competence
of the
auditors
Validate the
corrections (If any)
Issue a certificate
that the SG of the
SG of the Organization
organization meets
certified under the
the standard of the
applicable international
applicable norms,
standard
statutory and policy
requirements.
Credited: To the
certifying organization
(process audit)
Endorse the
certificate issued
by the certification
entity.
Country cases
To date, the OAS has provided technical cooperation to the EMBs of Panama
and Peru to implement a QMS and certification under ISO quality standards.
In these cases, all eight stages of the OAS methodology were implemented,
resulting in the certification of the electoral body. The OAS has also provided
technical cooperation to the EMB in Costa Rica through a diagnostic of
some of the organizations key processes.
The Panamanian certification
Department of Identification
In 2010, the JNE, the Peruvian electoral body that exercises jurisdictional
power, requested OAS support with the certification of the oversight of
electoral processes, citizen services, civic education and legislation under ISO
9001:2008 (see Figure 6.4).
In addition, support processes such as logistics, human resources, statistics and
technological development, as well as planning, innovation and development
were certified.
A comprehensive assessment was conducted of the sub-processes, activities,
documentation and current records of the key processes, including
management, support and improvement processes. Through a series of
interviews with staff, the gaps between the current practice of the electoral
body and the requirements of ISO 9001:2008 were identified. This project
was a major challenge at the beginning, due to the initial levels of process
International IDEA 125
Sub-processes
-- Voter registry
-- General elections, elections to the Andean Parliament,
regional elections, referendums and revocations
-- Internal democracy
-- Elections for civil society representatives to the Comites
de Coordination Regional (CCR), Comites de Coordination
Local Provincial (CCLP) and Comites de Coordination Local
Distrital (CCLD)
-- Other electoral processes
-- Political party committees
-- Elections to municipal authorities
Citizen services
------
Correspondence office
Voter exemption certificates
Citizen orientation
ROP registration
Central archive
Civic education
------
Registration of political
organizations
-----
Regulations
-- Report creation
-- Legislative systematization
-- Development of legal projects
Based on the needs of the electoral body, 74 sessions of nine different training
workshops were conducted on QMS-related topics (see Figure 6.5). A total
of 1157 officials were trained on aspects such as process management, service
quality and customer-oriented communication.
Figure 6.5 Courses and training sessions in Peru
Training Workshops
Programmed Events
10
Process Management
10
10
10
10
10
10
As in the Panamanian case, both central and support processes were properly
documented. The methodology was based on identifying macro-organizational
processes, defining key performance indicators, and subsequently reducing
these to small processes that form the basis for the definition of procedures
and activities. A quality policy was drafted to regulate the bodys processes
and services (see Box 6.1).
The implementation of a QMS allowed the EMB to improve its services while
at the same time identifying which of these services can be carried out by
external providers in order to improve their efficiency.
Address its actions towards the defense of democratic and ethical principals
within the framework of the Constitution and laws, to guarantee the compliance
with the popular will.
Promote participation and commitment of its personnel with Vision, Mission and
Strategic Institutional Objectives.
Source: Jurado Nacional Elecciones de Per. Translated from Spanish by the Department of Electoral
Cooperation and Observation, Organization of American States. The original text is available at
<http://portal.jne.gob.pe/Archivos/Gesti%C3%B3n%20de%20Calidad/politica_calidad.pdf>.
In 2008, the OAS assisted the Electoral Tribunal of Costa Rica in carrying
out a diagnostic for the documentation, implementation and certification of
two of its key processes: the civil registry and the electoral process. Each
process was broken down into a series of sub-processes that were included in
the diagnosis (see Figure 6.6).
The project identified the requirements and actions needed to implement and
achieve the standardization of the EMBs processes in accordance with ISO
standards. The diagnosis delivered a strategic plan, a feasibility study, a gap
analysis and detailed work plan, an organizational structure analysis and the
mapping of all key and support processes.
128 International IDEA
Electoral
process
1. Coordination of electoral
programmes
2. Electoral programmes
3. Electoral process
Conclusions
In the past, QMS and certification under ISO standards were quite foreign to
the public sector, but they have become a new challenge for the institutional
strengthening of EMBs, which gives them the ability to innovate and to
reinvent themselves.
An institution modernizes its processes when the concept of quality is
inherent in the provision of its goods and services, where the focus is the
citizens satisfaction, and where improvisation is minimal and management
professional. As the concept of quality management is introduced throughout
an entire EMB, it will doubtless have a positive effect on the organization of
elections.
In this sense, in a context where democratic systems are facing new threats
to the legitimacy of electoral processes, quality management and certification
under ISO quality standards are innovative and technically feasible ways to
face these challenges effectively.
Quality management as a tool for improving performance will result in
more transparent and efficient EMBs with processes that are better aligned
with their objectives. Through the implementation of a QMS, the EMB
demonstrates its openness and transparency to society and its willingness to
be periodically evaluated by external auditors using international standards.
The EMBs that have already started on the road to quality should remember
that taking that first step will lead them to new and more efficient ways of
carrying out their responsibilities, and that the importance of this change
will provide the consistency and discipline that will make such a change
sustainable.
The OAS is interested in promoting this important tool and hopes that
additional EMBs will adopt quality management in their institutions as a
permanent practice. This will undoubtedly result in a reform or reinvention
of relations between states and their citizens, helping to increase the integrity
of the EMB at all levels, from improving its ability to provide services to
citizens, to increasing the confidence of citizens in their institutions, and
by creating increased capacity for the organization to conduct fair and
transparent electoral processes.
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