Participants to the training

Considering the facts that the Government of Rwanda (GoR) envisions to be a service driven economy and dynamic global hub for business, investment and innovation; synergic engagement of public and private institutions is necessary to ensure that this important milestone and other national strategic directions (National Strategies for Transformation - NST1, Vision 2050) are achieved.

Also taking into account various initiatives undertaken to improve service delivery and quality promotion in public and private institutions, it is evident that there is still room for improvement by establishing a systematic framework to facilitate accountability, efficiency and effectiveness in our organizations.

Quality Management System (QMS) has been identified as an effective solution to overcome that persisting challenge. Rwanda Standards Board (RSB) took an initiative to provide technical support for public and private institutions that have an interest in improving service delivery and quality promotion in their daily operations. In this regard, from 11th to 15th February 2019 DQS Management Services PLC, a German global leading conformity assessment body and training organization  conducted a Lead Auditor Course based on ISO 9001- Quality Management Systems standard.

Working session

The course is approved at international level by the International Registration of Certified Auditors (IRCA) and saw the attendance of twenty (20) participants from Rwanda Standards Board, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ministry of Public Service and Labour, Directorate General of Immigration and Emigration, Rwanda Biomedical Centre as Department of Medical Procurement and Production Departmentand NPD COTRACO. This international course follows another series of preceding  courses including Quality Management System implementation  (ISO 9001:2015) course and guidelines for management systems auditing (ISO 19011:2018) course.

Speaking about the expectations from this five- day course, Mr Raymond MURENZI, Director General of Rwanda Standards Board noted:

“As Rwanda strives to be a service-driven economy, quality service should be at the helm of all efforts towards this vision. Similarly, required expertise and a pool of experts in Quality Management System is important to establish, monitor and assess conformity of the established system to the relevant applicable standards both in public and private sector organizations. This is an important step forward and we commend the commitment of organizations that participated in this exercise. We also make a call tomany more to follow in the same direction to make Quality Management a habit in our institutions for improved service delivery and subsequent customer satisfaction.”

Mr Raymond MURENZI, Director General/RSB

According to Mr Amedie Tadesse Solomon, DQS/ IRCA Certified Lead Trainer/Auditor: The International Register of Certificated Auditors (IRCA) is the leading professional body for management system auditors representing over 10,000 registered auditors in 150 countries and every year, around 60,000 delegates attend an IRCA approved training course and he adds on that DQS is very proud to support professional development of participants of this important training and continued success of RSB.

Mr A. Tadesse Salomon, one of the trainers

Mr Emmy Ngabonziza, Director of Administration and Finance at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, also participant to this course enthused about the benefits of attending thisweek-long course:

“During this course, we got clarification on setting up a clear direction of an institution through creating relationships among all interacting processes within an institution towards achieving its strategic orientation. QMS is at the basis of good performance of an institution. It clearly differentiates the roles of everyone within an institution; establish quality objectives that will help us attain strategic direction and hence eases interaction. Institutions are having various policies and programs but they are sometimes not well documented, accessed, understood and communicated. QMS will help to ensure effective and efficient operations though communication of existing policies and programs, ease of their accessibility and communication within the institution or to customers and stakeholders. It will also help monitoring and evaluation of existing programs and hence an important tool for service delivery improvement based on identification of customers, understanding their needs, collecting their feedbacks in order to know how to serve them better.

QMS is a system, institutions in public and private institutions need putting in place clear systems that are wholly implemented through interaction and collaboration of all individuals to attain institutional goals.  A system that emphasizes performance evaluation aiming at continual improvement. Success in service delivery depends on interactive processes rather than individuals. QMS adds value to what we are doing and thus increased credibility of an institution at international arena. We are happy with the content covered, and with this internationally certified course we are ready to raise awareness of our colleagues and embark on establishment of QMS in our institutions and check on the effectiveness of the QMS in our organizations.”

Mr.  Emmy Ngabonziza, participant

By participating in this course, trained QMS Lead Auditors gain knowledge and skills on the purpose of a quality management system, the relevancy of management system audit, the purpose of third party certification as well as the business benefits of improved performance of the quality management system. Participants also got knowledge in  understanding and explaining the role and responsibilities of an auditor to plan, conduct,  establish conformity (or otherwise), report and follow up a quality management system audit in accordance with ISO 19011 and ISO/IEC 17021, as applicable.

About the DQS

DQS Global Group is the first accredited certification body in Germany founded in 1985. Based in Frankfurt, Germany, DQS Group is one of the leading certification bodies worldwide specialized in assessment and certification of management systems based on 100+ standards and specifications including ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 22000, ISO 27001, ISO 50001 and more…www.dqs-holding.com,  www.dqsethiopia.com. 

The group has built a global presence with 80 offices in 66 countries conducting more than 100 thousand assessment days per year in over 57000 global sites in 130 countries. DQS is a founding member of IQNet, the largest network of the leading certification bodies worldwide, capable of providing world class service and expertise in all industry sectors that meet the highest accreditation standards worldwide to ensure success of valued customers.

DQS Management Services Plc (DQS Ethiopia) is authorized as a Global Approved Training Licensee (ATL) by IQCS Certification, Auditor Training Organization (ATP No. 01180136), approved by CQI & IRCA, for provision of professional management system auditor training programs respectively in the international market, including Ethiopia.