By Ben Cal – PNA
MANILA — After years of hard work, the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) has finally achieved the ISO world-class status last December.
This was announced Friday by MWSS Administrator Reynaldo V. Velasco, following a grant of Certificate for Public Administration covering the Project Management Process and the Facilitation of the Project Management Approval Process.
ISO stands for International Organization for Standardization, the world’s largest developer of voluntary international standards.
Velasco said that the ISO certificate could not come at a better time.
“This is all due to the collective efforts of MWSS personnel who were involved with the training, preparations, audits and other required documents needed for ISO certification,” he said.
The ISO was certified by AJA Registrars, the third-party auditing firm that conducted the certification process and was selected from among three bidders, he said.
Audited and certified were not only the Project Management process of the MWSS Corporate Office, which is one of the company’s core processes, but also support processes (planning, asset management, human resources development, operations support, finance, and legal processes), Velasco said.
Facilitated by Rene Liamzon of TUV Nord, the interactive lectures and workshops aimed to grasp the principles and values of the ISO 9001:2015. These gave the employees first-hand experience on how to fulfill the ISO 9001:2015 requirements as applied to the organization’s in-depth scope and context, specifically focusing on project management and its supporting functions.
Likewise, Velasco also commended its two concessionaires, Maynilad and Manila Water, for achieving ISO certifications.
Maynilad under its president, Ramoncito Fernandez, recently secured an ISO 22301:2012 certification in Business Continuity Management Systems from international auditing and certification body TUV Rheinland Philippines for its sustainability, operational resiliency and recovery in case of a disaster.
On the other hand, Manila Water, under its president, Ferdinand de la Cruz, obtained an ISO 9001:2015 certification for its Quality Management System. Its units were also awarded ISO 9001:2015 certifications.
“These certifications reflect how the water industry in the Philippines is stealthily growing and will continue to grow, develop, and improve to suit the needs of our customers,” Velasco said. “This shows that our services, treatment and products are indeed world-class, top-notch and of caliber quality.”
