REVENUE MEMORANDUM CIRCULAR NO. 129-2021 issued on December 29, 2021 publishes the full text of Government Quality Management Committee (GQMC) Memorandum Circular (MC) No. 2021-1 titled “Guidelines on the Validation of ISO Quality Management System (QMS) Certification/Recertification Submitted as Evidence of Compliance for a Criterion or Requirement for the Grant of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 Performance-Based Bonus (PBB)”.
A valid ISO 9001:2015 QMS certification/recertification is considered as compliance with the subject requirement. As an alternative, ISO 9001:2015 QMS-equivalent certifications e.g., Philippine Quality Award, ISO/IEC 17025 or 17020 Accreditation, and Accrediting Agency of Chartered Colleges and Universities in the Philippines, Inc. (AACCUP)’s Institutional Accreditation, are likewise considered as compliance with the ISO QMS certification requirement.
Letters of attestation or similar documents issued by certification bodies (CBs) indicating that certification/recertification audits have been completed but still subject to approval of their Certificate Decision Maker will not be considered as compliance to the ISO QMS requirement.
The certifications/recertifications must be valid as of December 31, 2021 e.g., effectivity date indicated in the certificate. Accordingly, certifications/ recertifications with an effectivity date starting January 1, 2022 onwards shall not be considered as compliance with said requirement for the FY 2021 PBB cycle.
The scope of the QMS indicated in the agency’s ISO 9001:2015 certificate for departments/agencies can range from only for non-frontline services to all frontline services. That scope is also applicable to constitutional commissions and Other Executive Offices (OEOs), and Government-Owned or -Controlled Corporations (GOCCs) under the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) (if ISO certification would be used as evidence for the process results), and State University or Colleges (SUCs) per AO 25 MC No. 2021-1.
The ISO 9001:2015 QMS certifications must be issued by any of the CBs accredited by
the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) member. However, the CBs which are duly accredited by the Department of Trade and Industry – Philippine Accreditation Bureau (DTI-PAB) to certify the agencies’ ISO QMS shall be preferred. The DTI-PAB, aside from being an IAF member, is the recognized national accreditation body in the Philippines pursuant to Executive Order No. 802, s. 2009.
The CBs contracted shall have been accredited to audit and certify QMS for the specified scopes which are deemed relevant to the nature and functions of the agency e.g., accreditation under ISO 9001 QMS for IAF 36 (Public Administration), IAF 37 (Education), and/or IAF 38 (Health and Social Work). The “Responsibilities of Agencies” in the validation of their compliance are specified in Section 6.0 of GQMC Memorandum Circular (MC) No. 2021-1.
The validating agencies shall conduct the validation on agency compliance with the ISO 9001:2015 QMS certification requirement from March 1, 2022 until April 30, 2022. The results of such validation shall include detailed Information on the agency submission, and the compliance status and equivalent rating, as applicable, of the agency as to the ISO QMS certification requirement. For departments/agencies and SUCs, the validating agency shall indicate the corresponding rating in accordance with AO 25 MC No. 2021-1:
| Rating Scale for Process Results | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| No demonstrated standardization/ quality assurance | Achieved ISOcertification or its equivalent certification only for nonfrontline services | Achieved ISOcertification or its equivalent certification for less than 80% of frontline services | Achieved ISOcertification or its equivalent certification for at least 80% of frontline services | Achieved ISOcertification or its equivalent certification for all frontline services | |
In case the rating/compliance of the agency could not be determined at the time of validation, the validating agency may Indicate “pending validation”. The reason for noncompliance shall also be indicated in column [8] using the following codes:
| Code | Description |
|---|---|
| N | No submitted ISO 9001 certification or equivalent certification/ accreditation, nor any ISO OMS-related documents |
| Q | Submitted QMS Documents only (Quality Manual, Procedures and Work Instructions Manual, Internal Quality Audit Certification and/or Management Review minutes) |
| E | ISO 9001 certification or equivalent certification/accreditation is invalid or has expired |
| A | Submitted Attestation/Confirmation Letter/Audit Report from CB only |
| U | Submitted documents are unnecessary which are not only not required under the guidelines but also not considered as QMS documents (e.g., office orders, memorandum of agreement with Development Academy of the Philippines, Human Resources manual/handbook, program-based AACCUP accreditation, certification from the agency head/OMS consultant on the agency's OMS efforts) |
| B | Validity of the ISO 9001 certification or equivalent certification/ accreditation commences beyond the December 31, 2021 deadline |
| C | Scope covered by the ISO 9001 certification or equivalent certification/accreditation is not a core process/critical frontline service (only applicable to GOCCs and LWDs |
Consistent with item 6.1 of AO 25 MC No. 2021-1, the unit/s most responsible (including its head) for the criteria stated in Section 3.0 of said MC with a performance rating of below 4 will be isolated from the grant of the FY 2021 PBB.