Dubai Customs implements 14 international quality management standards

Pic: Patrick Castillo

Thanks to the progressive vision and close guidance of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, Dubai Customs has evolved and developed to change the face of Customs work for the better, setting thus an exemplary role model locally, regionally and internationally.

“The wise leadership and government of Dubai’s directives have had a critical role in pushing forward government work towards excellence, particularly in light of Dubai Government Excellence Program (DGEP) launched 19 years ago by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid. In that perspective, Dubai Customs took the lead in adopting global best practices in quality management which proved impactful on the improvement of its business processes, systems and procedures,” said Ahmed Abdul Salam Kazim, Director of Strategy and Corporate Excellence at Dubai Customs.

“Dubai Customs was the first Customs administration in the world to apply the requirements of international quality management system and receive international certification ISO 9002 in 1999, in addition to WCO recognition for the leading milestone. Today, Dubai Customs implements as many as 14 international standards of quality management,” Kazim added.

With the growing attention to customer happiness and quality of service delivery, Dubai Customs went on to become the first corporate in MENA region to adopt customer complaints management system in line with ISO 10002 standard in 2008. And in 2009 it was announced as the first organization worldwide to get ISO 10001 certified for implementing client service charter standards.

On the way to becoming the first 100% electronic government department in 2009, and then the first fully smart government department in 2013, Dubai Customs fulfilled the requirements pertaining to international standards of information technology management and security ISO 20000 and ISO 27000. Then in 2014, DC was the first Customs administration worldwide to get service excellence certification TISSE 2012 from the British Standards Institution (BSI).

Dubai Customs is also keen to provide a sound and healthy working environment for its employees to increase their performance and corporate loyalty and impart to them the values of creativity and innovation. Over the past four years, the Quality Assurance Section at DC conducted more than 350 hours of training on quality management to over 230 employees.

Additionally, a total of 220 internal audits were carried out along with 35 external evaluations by international organizations in different areas of quality management. More than 100 recommendations for improvement were executed and non-compliance of processes reduced by 70%.

Samira Abdulrazzak, Quality Assurance Senior Manager, said Dubai Customs has sought to keep pace with the 4G criteria of DGEP through comprehensive review of business processes and revamp of DC’s quality management to fit the 4G requirements and the new edition of international quality management system standard ISO 9001:2015.

A total of 385 processes and over 1000 operational KPIs were reviewed, where 100% of operations were aligned with strategic objectives.

Innovation and future envisioning were also within the focus which led to DC Innovation Center adopting the criteria of European Innovation Standard TS:16555 and earning Dubai Customs another international standard certification in early 2016.

For Dubai Customs, she said , excellence is not only about delivering top-notch services to customers, but also concerns improvement internally by adopting global best practices in training management ISO 10015, social accountability SA8000, as well as in occupational health and safety management OHSAS 1800, and many more international standards in various areas of work.