ZAMBOANGA CITY — President Rodrigo Duterte recently conferred the Philippine Quality Award (PQA) Recognition for Proficiency in Quality Management (Level 2) on the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) 9 (Zamboanga Peninsula), making it the country’s lone national line agency to have been presented such recognition.
DOST-9 Director Martin Wee said Tuesday they received the prestigious award after comprehensive efforts to improve and maintain its services to the public since receiving the Recognition for Commitment to Quality Management (Level 1) in 2012.
Wee said it was during the stint of then regional director and now DOST Undersecretary Brenda Nazareth-Manzano that the coverage of the assessment period was conducted.
The Recognition for Proficiency in Quality Management is awarded to organizations that have demonstrated a thorough implementation of quality and productivity management principles and have significant progress in building sound and notable processes.
Wee said a solid approach to system-level quality and productivity management adds up to the extensive lines of criteria to aspire for the award.
This year’s Philippine Quality Award Ceremony is intended specifically for 16 agencies and organizations across the country that bagged the award for the 18th to 20th Cycles of the PQA (2015-2017).
Aside from DOST-9, Wee said DOST 4-A (Calabarzon) and the DOST’s Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD) have also been conferred the PQA (Level 1).
The PQA criteria focuses on the areas of leadership, strategy, customer, measurement, analysis and knowledge management, workforce, operations and results.
Wee said the PQA is the highest level of national recognition for exemplary organizational performance.
It is a global competitiveness template that aims to encourage and engage public and private organizations and other stakeholders to strive for and attain performance excellence, the DOST-9 chief said.
The award is comparable with the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) of the US and those in Europe and Asia, he added. The awarding ceremony was held during the PQA Conferment Ceremony at the Heroes Hall in Malacañan Palace last October 24. (Teofilo Garcia, Jr/PNA)
