RADA to begin ISO resensitisation mid-february

THE Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) will be undertaking re-sensitisation of its staff, beginning February, in accordance with its recently implemented ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System.

Certification was achieved by the authority in December of 2022, following successful completion of stages one and two audits.

Three RADA locations have been certified — the corporate office in Kingston, the St Thomas parish office in the eastern zone and the St Elizabeth parish office in the western zone.

They will now play a lead role in assisting other parish offices within the respective zones to attain certification.

Speaking at a JIS Think Tank on Tuesday (January 24), acting chief executive officer (CEO) at RADA, Winston Simpson noted that with the growing demand on the entity’s services, there has been increased focus on establishing standards.

He said it is, therefore, “of paramount importance that we get all other 11 parish [offices] up and running in short time, and we intend to have that done in a year”.

“Having done the pilot and having gone through the rigours [of certification], it wasn’t without sensitising the other parishes of what’s to come,” he pointed out.

The re-sensitisation process, which is slated to begin mid-february, will first focus on the importance of documentation and the process of risk management. Simpson said the RADA team is competent and qualified to “broaden our spectrum in terms of service delivery”.

“These are some of the things that we are looking at that will allow us to build client confidence within the sector. This will allow us, not just to achieve another 17 per cent in growth in the third quarter and seven consecutive quarters of growth, but to make it a culture — and RADA is poised towards achieving that,” he said.

The certification process commenced in October 2018 when RADA began a series of sensitisation and training sessions geared towards ISO 9001:2015 certification. To date, a total of 22 sessions have been conducted with RADA’S senior management staff and technical specialists. The outcomes of these sessions have resulted in the development of an ISO Scope Statement, Quality Policy and Quality Objectives. The scope of RADA’S ISO 9001:2015 certification includes core services such as design and development, project implementation, farm visits, farmer registration, distribution of farm inputs, and the implementation of a production incentive programme.