Dubai Customs recently passed the external audit of its Social Accountability system (SA 8000) which was conducted without prior notice last July. This success reflects on the Department’s endeavors to adopt the best business practices and its keenness to prove its excellence in earning quality standards at the different business domains.
This achievement is inline with Dubai Customs strategic aspect with regards to adopting the best practices of the business procedures and systems and providing the best human and technical resources as well as anchoring its excellence in every business area.
TUV international company, which is specialized in auditing the international administrative systems, conducted the unscheduled audit phase without notifying Dubai Customs about the date or the details of the audit process. This comes as part of preserving the social accountability certificate in order to check the compliance and efficiency of the documented procedures in achieving the planned objectives. This is done by reviewing the documents and records and interviewing the employees’ representative as well as a number of the Passenger Operation Department employees at Airport Terminal 1, in addition to reviewing the system’s records at the Community Affairs and Government Partnership Division, the Human Resources Department and Strategy and Corporate Excellence Department at Dubai Customs.
The Social Accountability system includes a set of internationally adopted standards stemmed from the principles and conventions of the World Labor Organization and the United Nations as well as other international organizations concerned with human rights. Obtaining the standard means the availability of a fair and safe workplace for all the employees working at the organization which received the certificate.
Basically, the system aims to enhance the work conditions at the government and private organizations in the world. It was also designed while taking into consideration the local laws and legislations in every country. SA system was developed by Social Accountability International (SAI), a non-profit international organization which seeks to develop efforts to provide standards for social accountability and encouraging their implementation.
In view of the attention Dubai Customs gives to its human resources, a team was created to ensure raising awareness about social accountability principles at every customs location regardless of the employee’s job grade. Furthermore, Mr. Khamis Al Mehairi was elected for the second consecutive year as the Employees Representative at Dubai Customs.
Dubai Customs is considered the first government department in Dubai to earn the Social Accountability certificate in July 2009 in a bid to implement the most up-to-date quality standards and continuous performance enhancement and increasing employees’ satisfaction.