SCA is the first federal authority to obtain certificates of conformity with ISO standards on governance and innovation and the first body in the country to obtain conformity certificates with the ISO standards related to knowledge and sustainable procurement

“This achievement promotes the culture of innovation and creativity, enhances the quality of services, and creates standardized frameworks and methodologies,” Dr. Obaid Al Zaabi
 
“Obtaining the certificates reflects SCA’s keenness to translate into action the vision of the UAE on government work, which is based on excellence and the implementation of the best international standards,” Mohammed Al Hadari

 In an important step towards fulfilling the aspirations of the wise government to adopt the best international standards and practices and enhance the quality of institutional work, the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) was awarded certificates of conformity with four ISO standards—namely, BS 13500:2013 ‘Code of practice for delivering effective governance of organizations’, ISO 56002:2019 ‘Innovation management’ (the first federal authority to receive this certificate), ISO 30401:2018 ‘Knowledge management systems’, and ISO 20400:2017 ‘Sustainable procurement’ (the first federal body in the country to obtain the certificate) by Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance (LRQA).
 
SCA announced recently that it had obtained a certificate of conformity with the ISO 31000:2018 standard, bringing the total conformity certificates obtained since the beginning of this year to five, an achievement that emphasizes that SCA is a leader in implementing the highest international standards.
 
On this occasion, Dr. Obaid Al Zaabi, SCA’s CEO, expressed his pleasure that SCA succeeded to obtain the five conformity certificates over the last short period, saying that it “reflects SCA’s tireless efforts to enhance its regulatory and administrative performance and ensure work efficiency to achieve the objectives that it has set out”. He stressed that “obtaining the conformity certificates helps to promote the culture of innovation and creativity, enhance the quality of services, and create standardized frameworks and methodologies linked to its strategic objectives and performance standards, most notably the standards of organizational governance”.    
 
Dr. Al Zaabi noted that “the wise governance principles that SCA adopted cover areas related to supervision, discipline, responsibility, accountability, sustainable development, integrity, moral values, the rule of law, fairness, equality, autonomy, disclosure, transparency, partnerships, and cooperation all the while focusing on customer service, thus enabling SCA to best use its resources; to achieve sustained growth; to encourage productivity; to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of operations management; and to support and enhance the confidence of all participants, partners, and investors”.
 
He explained that “SCA’s sustainable procurement policy, for example, ensures that it maintains environmental, economic, and social sustainability, in addition to maintaining the health and safety of all employees, customers, and suppliers through the implementation of the best international standards and practices”.
 
For his part, H.E. Mohammed Khalifa Al Hadari, Deputy CEO for Supporting Services and Innovation CEO, praised SCA’s achievement in obtaining five certificates of conformity with ISO standards over the first four months of this year, stressing that this is another achievement added to its track record.
 
Al Hadari explained that this achievement went into multiple phases during which all procedures and applications concerning work methodology were reviewed, in addition to ensuring that the standards of organizational performance were implemented in a highly professional manner in areas related to governance, innovation, knowledge, and sustainable procurement.
 
Al Hadari praised the professionalism and efficiency of the work team with whom he worked to accomplish the mission, in addition to the speed with which the team acted to make this achievement in a less than planned timeframe.  

For his part, Ayman Ktaily, Business Development Manager for the Middle East and Africa at LRQA, commented: “We are proud to have partnered with SCA to achieve its strategy and advance its efforts to become among the leading federal bodies in the UAE by improving its strategies and the way it works in accordance with ISO standards,” saying that “Lloyd’s Register evaluated SCA as the first federal authority on ISO standards related to organizational governance and innovation and as the first federal body on ISO standards related to knowledge management and sustainable procurement. We wish SCA and its employees continued prosperity”.  
 
Governance of organizations
 
SCA obtained a certificate of conformity with the BS 13500:2013 standard as a result of its implementation of the wise governance standards and principles, including financial aspects; operations; strategic, operational, regulatory, and legal objectives; customers; business continuity; crisis and disaster management; and occupational health and safety.
 
SCA obtained this conformity certificate following thorough audits by Lloyd’s Register to ensure that its operations meet international standards, thus proving that it has been implementing the best governance standards to improve government work and achieve excellence in service provision.  
 
SCA’s governance management methodology aims to achieve the best use of resources, ensure sustained growth, encourage productivity, enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of operations management, ensure the implementation of the transparency and accountability standards, maintain the rights of stakeholders, guarantee the interests of the community to promote SCA’s reputation among stakeholders and strategic partners, build a culture of stakeholder engagement in decision making and policy formulation, and evaluate services and operations.
 
Innovation management
 
SCA obtained a certificate of conformity with the ISO 56002:2019 standard for supporting and managing innovation to improve the services offered and enhance operations management in line with the government’s approaches, and to achieve its innovation strategy.
 
By obtaining this certificate, SCA proved its ability to utilize innovation as a key factor in the management of its operations and activities, thus enabling it to take advantage of the opportunities available, deal with and adapt to the changing conditions, promote the culture of innovation in the workplace, take part in innovative projects, and remain informed on best practices, thus benefiting SCA and the country’s securities sector in general. 
 
To meet the requirements of this ISO standard, SCA succeeded in building an integrated and efficient innovation management system and in identifying the different roles its regulatory units, departments, and senior management play in establishing practices and achieving objectives. SCA also managed to utilize technology and to digitize its operations and activities to enhance its competitiveness.
 
Knowledge management
 
To emphasize its success in adopting a system for the management of knowledge, which includes implicit and explicit knowledge, such as skills, information, and experience, SCA obtained a certificate of conformity with the ISO 30401:2018 standard, which demonstrates that it is pursuing distinctive strategy, policies, and methodologies to create and spread knowledge.
 
SCA has been committed to implementing knowledge management principles by launching a policy to develop and pursue a strategy with a clear vision and goals in response to the directives of the wise government, and to effectively and actively engage all its employees in building a national and institutional identity while showing commitment to introduce initiatives that aim to spread and increase knowledge, complying with the regulatory requirements, and working to enhance the methodology implemented through ongoing reviews of performance levels.
 
SCA is adopting a mechanism to spread and exchange the knowledge acquired internally and to ensure that such knowledge is readily and easily accessible in an effort to make the optimal investment in knowledge, foster and spread the culture of knowledge, and provide an interactive environment to transfer accumulated experience.
 
Sustainable procurement
 
SCA obtained a certificate of conformity with the ISO 20400:2017 standard for its efforts in promoting the role it plays towards the economy, community, and the environment by developing a methodology for sustainable procurement aimed at managing and implementing sustainability practices in areas related to the economy and social and environmental responsibility within procurement.   
 
SCA’s procurement methodology aims to build and foster a culture of sustainability as a practice inherent in its procedures to keep in mind the aspects related to work ethics and countering corruption, human and labor rights, the environment, managing value added chain, the principle of partnership and participation with partners, and communication and reporting.
 
SCA’s sustainable procurement framework is associated with a range of initiatives, strategic objectives, and international practices and regulations. It is also associated with SCA’s 2017-2021 strategic objectives and the UAE National Agenda, as well as with the Mohammed bin Rashid Government Excellence Program and the international standards that are in line with the standards of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB), and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).