ONGC first PSU to get ISO 9001 for Internal Audit

New Delhi, Dec 6 (UNI) The Internal Audit of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) has been accredited with ISO 9001:2000 certification by Det Norske Veritas (DNV).

This is the first time any public sector company has been accredited with ISO certification for its Internal Audit function.

In a function at ONGC office at New Delhi today, M/s DNV handed over the formal accreditation certificate to ONGC CMD R S Sharma.

Receiving the accreditation, Mr Sharma said, "This stands as a testimony to the continual efforts taken by ONGC to maintain leadership in Good Corporate Governance Practices".

Complimenting the entire internal audit team of ONGC headed by Mr B L Ghasolia for their efforts, Mr Sharma also praised the consultant team of M/s Ernst&Young for facilitating the accreditation.

With this accreditation, the effectiveness of Quality System needs to be certified by management on regular basis which requires audit to be carried out in a professional manner. Accordingly, a Quality Management System (QMS) has also been established in ONGC for effective implementation and maintenance of the Quality System.

It may be added, that all the operational installations of ONGC are accredited for Quality, Health, Safety and Environment Management (QHSE), making ONGC unique in the world to be 100 per cent compliant.

ONGC has secured a Composite MoU score of 1.45, based on provisional results of fiscal 2005-06. The final MoU score may improve to 1.375 (the lower the score, the better), as assessed internally by ONGC, based on Audited results for FY06.

This is a significant improvement over last fiscal (FY05) when ONGC secured 'Very Good' with a composite MoU score of 1.77.

Out of 28 benchmarked parameters in its MoU with the Government, ONGC scored 'Excellent' in 17 parameters and 'Very Good' in 7. It scored 'Excellent' against all 7 parameters listed under Static Financial Parameters.

The Company also scored 'Excellent' rating against parameters like Reserve Accretion, Finding cost, Project implementation, Capital Expenditure, etc.

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