The National Statistics Office (NSO) was among the very few recipients of this year's Phillippine Quality Award (PQA). Administrator Tomas Africa received the glass trophy bearing the seal of the President and the PQA logo from Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora in a ceremony held recently at Heroes Hall, Malacañang. Other guests who witnessed the occasion include, among others, DFA Secretary Domingo Siazon, DTI Undersecretary Ernesto Ordoñez and CSC Chairman Corazon Alma de Leon.

There are only four organizations - two each from the private and government sectors - who qualified for the prestigious award. American Microsystems, Inc. and Marikina City both won the 1999 Recognition for Quality Proficiency. The PSI Technologies and the NSO were this year's recipients of Recognition for Quality Commitment.

The PQA is the highest form of national recognition given to public and business organizations for outstanding quality performance. It has been designed to challenge Philippine organizations to achieve world-class excellence by continuously improving on quality. The search for PQA awardees was established in 1997 through the issuance of Executive Order No. 448 by the then President Fidel Ramos. In the first awarding ceremonies held last year, the NSO was presented a special citation for its sustained drive to systematically upgrade the quality of its operations and outputs, and thus better serve its clientele.

The PQA Board of Judges for this year's competition recognized the visible quality commitment of NSO's leadership, led by its Administrator, which has encouraged the agency to initiate programs that go beyond the government mandate to provide statistical services and civil registration to the public. Moreover, key customer requirements have been identified and considered in the five-year development plan and communicated up to the provincial levels. Likewise, they commended on NSO management's generally good relations with the people and made special mention on the participation of its employees organization, the Union of Statistics Employees, in strategic decision-making.

The PQA criteria are patterned after the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award of the United States, the same criteria were similarly being adopted in Singapore, Australia, Malaysia and in the European Union.