A Carleton PhD student in the School of Public Policy and Administration has created a new certification process that is the first of its kind in the world. It will help local municipalities improve their practice of good governance.

Christian Bordeleau launched the new certification process called IGO 9002 (mc) on Sept. 29 at the McGill Faculty Club in Montreal. The process has already received national media attention and has been well received by a number of institutions. The city of Blainville, Québec is piloting the new process.

Bordeleau has also created a new company called Intangible based on his work.

“This new certification process is a concrete step to support town councils and municipal administrations in their desire to upgrade the ethical quality of their regulatory provisions,” says Bordeleau. “Since local administrations represent the closest governmental level to the population, they are all the more willing to improve their practices in terms of good governance.”

Since 2000, good governance has been a priority for the Government of Quebec, the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In this context, they established important good governance criteria. The IGO 9002 process builds on their work.

“It raises the bar by offering an inspiring aim for public administrators – the certification process promotes an ethical approach to good governance and offers them a way to measure and surpass the world’s best practices,” says Bordeleau. “IGO 9002 is the most complete certification in the world, specifically adapted for the municipal world, and it goes beyond the minimum requirements adopted by provincial legislations.”

The certification process is composed of three stages:

1- Evaluation by a team of expert analysts

2- Filing of a report.

3- Adoption of recommendations

Once a municipal government has gone through these three processes, it will receive provisory certification. In order to be fully certified, it must then undergo a Formation and Inspection process. If standards are not continually met, certification will be revoked.

Dr. Leslie Pal, director of the Centre for Governance and Public Management at Carleton University is Bordeleau’s thesis supervisor and also a member of an expert committee that helps oversee the project. He says: “A significant marriage of policy research and public mindedness. Christian brings together what he has learned at the School at Carleton and his own convictions to improve governance.”

“The School of Public Policy and Administration is the leading centre in Canada and I’m in debt for the quality of the doctoral education I received there and the thesis supervision was incredible,” says Bordeleau.

Thursday, September 29, 2011 in ,
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