MUNICIPALITIES: 75 PRACTICES
Municipality of Volos has 144.449 inhabitants and is located in the center of the mainland Greece. Its main objective is to promote sustainable development and improve the quality of life of its citizens.
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The Municipality of Volos, aiming for a Total Quality Management, establishes and implements quality assurance systems, methods and tools in its internal operation, recognizing that quality is the responsibility of all involved parties and all functions within the organization, emphasizing:
with the strategic aim of improving the quality and efficiency of the services provided to citizens.
Employees in the Municipality, citizens and local bodies.
Since 2010 and continues with continuous enrichment in individual actions, with the expansion of the fields of application and the increase of the personnel involved.
The Municipality of Volos, recognizing the decisive importance of the principles of Total Quality Management in the operation of the public administration, since 2010 has been developing and implementing a quality system, i.e. a set of procedures together with the required organizational and logistical infrastructure with the aim of improving quality and efficiency of services provided to citizens. In 2012, the Department of Efficiency and Quality was established in the Directorate of Planning, Sustainable Development and New Technologies with corresponding responsibilities, which has an important role in promoting issues related to the quality of services. In 2017, the Municipality of Volos proceeded with the certification of its Quality Management System and its services in accordance with the requirements of the international standard ELOT EN ISO 9001:2015, with the scope of application of the management of co-financed projects (technical projects, supplies, services and projects implemented with the same inside).
Simultaneously with the Quality Management System according to ISO 9001:2015, other efforts are being made that improve the daily work of its employees such as the standardization of forms and procedures, the creation of a Quality Team in the Municipality, the creation of an Electronic Project Management Application, the establishment of performance indicators in services, the continuous and targeted training of employees in matters of quality and efficiency of services. In this context of the continuous effort to offer better services to citizens, and increase the efficiency of municipal services, in March 2019 comes the successful implementation of self-evaluation in services of the Municipality of Volos through the tool of the Common Evaluation Framework (K. PA) (as also pointed out in a relevant letter from the Ministry of the Interior), which led to an action program with specific measures and actions in the various areas that need improvement. It is particularly important that benchmarking and benchmarking procedures are introduced to the operation of the Municipality through the Common Evaluation Framework.
Today in the Municipality of Volos there are 8 services certified according to ISO 9001:2015 regarding the management of co-financed projects, 15 procedures and a large number of forms have been standardized and certified and a permanent Quality Team operates, resulting in the successful management of co-financed projects through the systematic cooperation of those involved services and the use of an innovative internal electronic platform created by the executive staff of the municipality for the joint management and monitoring of co-financed operations. Also, from the implementation of the KPA, an Action Program has emerged that includes the conclusions of the self-evaluation and proposals to improve the internal functioning of the Municipality. Finally, targeted employee group trainings were carried out and others are planned.
The action was implemented and continues to be implemented in the Municipality of Volos.
The action was implemented (and is still being implemented), by the staff of the Municipality and with the initiative and coordination of the Efficiency and Quality Department of the Directorate of Planning, Sustainable Development and New Technologies in collaboration with the General Directorate of the Municipality of Volos, without external support body/partner.
For the implementation of the action, a large part of the human resources of the Municipality of Volos cooperates (indicatively, working groups for Quality, the implementation of the KPA and employees who answered questionnaires are mentioned)
The main benefit for the Municipality of Volos is the acquisition of experience and know-how internally in quality tools and systems and the dissemination of this information to all staff. In more detail:
