– about to become ISO-approved
THE OPERATIONS of the Land Management Department of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) has so improved in recent months, it is now well on its way to achieving its objective of acquiring an ISO 9001 standard.

This is according to the Commissioner, Mr. William Woolford who explained that the Land Management Department is responsible for the processing of applications and the issuing of licenses to large and medium-scale miners.

In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Chronicle, Woolford said that the Department had in recent weeks completed the manuals which need to be in place for an ISO standard, namely, a policy manual and a quality systems manual, and had also passed two internal quality systems audits of its work.

The Department, under the leadership of Miss Adele Butts, is gearing for an external pre-assessment audit of its systems in December, and is hoping to be found compliant with ISO 9001 standards during the first quarter of 2010.

An ISO standard carries the ISO logo and the designation, ‘International Standard’.

“This achievement will put the Land Management Department in the framework for international acceptance of the way we operate. ISO Standards will be an affirmation that we are operating at international standards, and it is vital, because when foreigners and even locals scrutinise us, they must not have doubts about our approaches and the things we do and say,” he said.

The Commissioner, who seemed in rather high spirits at this turn of events, traced the development of the Department to the stage it’s now at, from 2008, when it adopted and implemented a new management system. That system at reference was instrumental in reducing the waiting time for obtaining licenses for large and medium-scale mining from between 337 and 469 days, which is what obtained in 2007, to between 76 and 106 days.

The turning point, he said, was the adoption of a modern management system named ‘The Lean Six – Sigma Method’ – an approach that was developed by Motorola Corporation, an American Telecommunications Company based in Illinois, as a set of practices designed to improve production processes and eliminate defects.

Woolford said the GGMC, with the aid of a consultant experienced in ‘Lean Six Sigma’ approaches, studied the processing of applications and found better ways for each step in the processing, thereby reducing the time required without compromising the integrity of the process.

“Our April 2009 Statistics Spreadsheet showed that the optimum processing time of 76 days was achieved, thus giving the customer a 440% reduction in time taken for the grant of a Medium-Scale Permit on the time which it took prior to the changes,” he said.

The new approach also helped eliminate complaints about favouritism, discrimination and corruption in the processes.

The Executive of the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) has since then praised the GGMC for implementing the new system of work.

Woolford said the move for ISO Certification represented a process of building on the achievements of Lean Six Sigma.

A source at the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) said that the GGMC pre-assessment audit for an ISO 9001 standard in December will be a sort of mock audit before the real conformity assessment necessary for certification.

“The external auditors will really be assessing their readiness for ISO. They will tell them how close they are, and will advise them on what additional steps are necessary, or they may pass them for the final conformity assessment and registration,” the source said.

Said source also confirmed that if successful, the GGMC would be first ever public sector agency to achieve such a highly-prized Standard.

Woolford said that the staff of GGMC are excited about this possibility.

“Getting this certification,” Woolford said, “means that the Land Management Department will be recognisable worldwide as having the capability for meeting customer’s quality requirements, for enhancing customer satisfaction, and achieving continual improvement of its performance in pursuit of these objectives.”

He’s however acknowledged that the quest of the Land Management Department can be jeopardised if there is a high attrition rate of specially-trained Staff.

He said that cognisant of this fact, management is trying its best to get these staffers the type of remuneration that will encourage them to stay.

He said too that the work of another Department, the Environmental Department, is currently under review, with the aim of eventually acquiring an ISO Standard in this area of the services, hopefully the second ISO for the Commission as a whole some time in the near future.