In continuation of the efforts of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to improve its delivery of quality service, the agency has successfully concluded its Expansion Surveillance Audit with SOCOTEC Certification Philippines, Inc. for  2022 with a recommendation for continued certification.

The 2022 Expansion Surveillance Audit, which was conducted on November 2 to 29 and December 12, 2022, was critical in validating the continued conformity of the DSWD Quality Management System (QMS) to ISO 9001:2015 Standards which is a testament to the Department’s commitment to strengthen its delivery of efficient and effective social welfare and development programs and services for the Filipino people.

Furthermore, the audit is also an expansion of the scope of previously excluded services to cover 100% of frontline and non-frontline services of the Department. Among the frontline and non-frontline services which were included in the audit were those with no availment in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. These include: General Administration and Essential Support Services, Operations Management, Disaster Response Management, Policy Development, Standards and Regulatory Service Administration and Capacity Building.

According to the audit report of SOCOTEC, the DSWD Top Management “has extended a great deal of support for the implementation of the DSWD QMS and has pushed for expansion of more Core Services provided directly to the Filipino citizenry.”

Furthermore, there were also improvements seen in the processes of DSWD Field Offices (FOs) especially in systems used in daily operations, infrastructure, and ongoing renovation of facilities.

In terms of operations, SOCOTEC found that the linkages between the DSWD Central Office and FOs were consistently evident all throughout the audit.

The Department vowed to continue to improve its delivery of quality public service in order to attain Total Quality Management exemplified by performance excellence under the “1SANG DSWD, 1SONG BYAHE” mantra. ###