Government Quality Assurance (GQA) – in general
Quality in the broadest meaning of the word is increasingly asserting itself as the customer's main criterion when choosing a product and supplier. Determining customer requirements and ensuring the required product quality on the part of suppliers thus becomes a fundamental aspect for maintaining their competitiveness on the market.
Products designed to ensure the defence of the state are so specific in their nature, use and life cycle costs that it is necessary to check whether they meet the specified quality requirements before their delivery. It is often not enough to only assess the final product, but continuous monitoring of the conditions under which the production is carried out is necessary. In selected cases, the supplier's quality management system is also assessed.
In NATO member states, great emphasis is placed on verifying the quality of products intended to ensure the defence of the state. This emphasis is based on the need to ensure sufficient defence capability of NATO and individual member states with the most efficient possible use of financial resources. Therefore, quality assurance is placed under the purview of the relevant state body (office) and placed at the level of state quality assurance. The competent authority has the right to act on behalf of the state and perform state quality assurance not only for the state authorities of the given state, but also for other NATO/PfP states.
Several reasons can be identified why it is necessary to make such an effort to verify the quality of products intended to ensure the defence of the state, especially weapons systems, ammunition, air and ground combat equipment.
Among these reasons are the following aspects:
- higher customer requirements for some quality features;
- non-compliance with quality requirements could be a source of unforeseeable consequences when using the product, both on property and especially on the health and lives of citizens;
- the possibilities of verifying the quality of the products upon their receipt are considerably limited due to the specific requirements for their quality;
- high financial demand for the own purchase of products, so it is necessary to minimize the costs of maintenance and operation of products throughout their lifetime.
Verification of the quality of selected products delivered to the department of the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic has a long-standing tradition that dates back to the years of the First Republic. The entry of the Czech Republic into NATO, the subsequent adoption of the NATO Standardization Agreement (STANAG) 4107 and the need to verify the quality of selected products and services intended to ensure the defence of the state and outside the Department of the Ministry of Defence forced the adoption of Act No. 309/2000 Coll., on Defence Standardisation, Codification and Government Quality Assurance of National Defence Products and Services and on the Amendment to the Trade Law. This law established the basic principles and conditions for the implementation of government quality assurance and established the Defence Standardization, Codification and Government Quality Assurance Authority as an administrative office with nationwide scope. Government quality assurance can generally be defined as a process by which the customer, through a professional body, verifies whether the supplier of the product fulfils the contractual quality requirements. In accordance with Act No. 309/2000 Coll., the Defence Standardization, Codification and Government Quality Assurance Authority was established as this professional body.
Government quality assurance of supplies intended to ensure the defence of the state is carried out by the Authority at the request and for the benefit of customers. These customers are ministries, other administrative authorities, regions, relevant NATO authorities or similar authorities, authorities of NATO member states or similar authorities, or authorities of other countries.
Government quality assurance is carried out by the Authority on the basis of a contract between the customer and the supplier, which must include the requirements for its implementation. The discussion of the requirements for the implementation of the GQA is carried out in the administrative procedure according to Act No. 500/2004 Coll., administrative rules, based on the request for the GQA submitted to the Authority by the customer in accordance with § 20 of Act No. 309/2000 Coll.
According to Act No. 309/2000 Coll. the Authority within the GQA is authorized to carry out final product inspection, professional quality supervision or quality audits. The scope of GQA for each specific business case is chosen mainly according to the nature of the product and the supplier, respectively according to the risks of the product, the risks of the supplier's quality management system and the risks of its processes.
Depending on the identified risks, quality assurance is carried out to the extent of:
- final product inspections or
- final product inspection and professional quality supervision or
- final product inspections and audit of the supplier's quality system or
- final product inspection, professional quality supervision and audit of the supplier's quality system or
- audit of the quality of the supplier's processes and the final inspection of the product - this is performed for personal use material only.
With the final inspection of the product, the Authority verifies the compliance of the product with the requirements set by the customer in the contract with the supplier. It is carried out after the end of production (for finished products) or after the service has been provided.
Through professional quality supervision, the Authority verifies whether the supplier's processes, the result of which is the product, are carried out in accordance with the customer's requirements set out in the contract with the supplier and ensure the achievement of the required quality of the product or service. It is carried out during the production of a product or the provision of a service.
By auditing the quality system, the Authority verifies whether the supplier's quality management system meets the customer's requirements. These audits are in the nature of customer audits and are carried out free of charge at suppliers.
During the audit, the quality management system is usually checked in terms of the requirements of the relevant Czech Defence Standard (ČOS), which introduces a contract-type AQAP publication.
In special cases, the Authority also conducts process quality audits and product quality audits. During the process quality audit, it verifies whether the relevant process meets the generally established requirements placed on it. During the product quality audit, as part of the quality management system review, the production documentation of the product at all levels is comprehensively reviewed.
It can be summarized that during the state quality verification, the following is determined:
- conformity of the customer's requirements for the quality of products and services with the quality actually achieved (performance of final inspection),
- compliance with the methods, procedures and principles of the quality management system to ensure the quality of products and services for a specific public contract (performance of professional quality supervision),
- introduction of a quality management system and the resulting ability of the supplier to ensure the required quality of products and services (conducting an audit of the supplier's quality system).
