The Common Assessment Framework (CAF) is a Total Quality tool especially designed for the Public Sector and it is based on self-assessment of its performance.
According to the CAF, excellence in organisational performance and in relationships with customers/ citizens and the society depend on leadership, strategy, planning, human resources, cooperations and administrative procedures. The CAF constitutes a holistic analysis of organisational performance by applying a multi-aspect approach.
The SGL was one of the first Government Departments which partricipated voluntarily in this pilot program for the implementation of the CAF Model in Cyprus. Effectiveness and reliability are the keystone of the SGL development. For this reason, by applying two quality systems, the Accreditation system based on the ISO/ IEC 17025 standard (since 2002) and the CAF (since 2005), the SGL aims at the implementation of a Total Quality Management System. The two systems are complementary, since accreditation based on ISO/ IEC 17025 covers mainly the technical/ scientific and partly the management operations and CAF provides measurable quality criteria for the proper management of financial and human resources aiming at the maximisation of performance and the achievement of the SGL's targets and visions. The continuous development and documentation of the technical and administrative competency, through common implementation, control, review and improvement procedures, is one of its targets.
The first self-assessment based on CAF was done in 2005 by a team of SGL personnel from all the levels of the personnel pyramid. The shortcomings identified were confronted through the implementation of a particular action plan. The self-assessment covered all the activities of the organisation and was carried out on all the 9 criteria (5 for prerequisites and 4 for results) and a total of 28 sub-criteria. The evaluation was based on benchmarking. The effectiveness of the action plan was reviewed in 2007 and the improvement of the quality indices of 2007 compared with 2005 was obvious. In 2012/13 the SGL carried out a new self-assessment based on CAF, the results of which confirmed that the procedures applied in all the administration sectors indicate a mature and successful management system with a steadily high performance index as illustrated in the figure below.
SGL aims at continuous improvement of its technical and administrative sectors so that its Vision for:
"Contribution to the improvement of Quality of life through the provision of reliable and high quality services, constant development and excellence"
is feasible.
Related links:
European Institute of Public Administration