COVID-19 control certification is a must: SLSI Chairman

SLSI Chairman Nushad Perera, SLSI DG Dr. Siddhika Senaratne, Rotary Governor Ajith Weerasinghe, Stop the Spread Chairman Dushan Soza and Project Director Dr. Rohantha Athukorala

Given the global issue of the COVID-19 and the variants that are being discovered and now, some of them penetrating the Sri Lankan market the COVID-19 control environment certification offered by Sri Lanka Standards Institute ( SLSI) to organisations is very timely, said SLSI Chairman Nushad Perera.

An idea mooted by Rotary Sri Lanka during the early times of the pandemic was taken on board by the SLSI and a certification process developed that has resulted in top companies like Akbar Brothers, Keells Supermarkets, Haycarb, Anantaya Resorts, Litro Gas, Nestle and CIC just to name a few going through the certification process has given protection to employees, said Dr. Siddhika Senaratne at the MOU signing in ceremony between SLSI and Rotary Sri Lanka. 

“We are honoured in this partnership and already over 200 entities have been certified by SLSI, including the company I head, CIC Feeds, and I can personally endorse that it has helped in stopping the spread of this deadly virus,” said Rotary Sri Lanka and Maldives Governor Ajith Weerasinghe. “The certification process makes a company have a system of controlling the environment in an organisation,” he said. 

Stop the Spread Sri Lanka and Maldives Project Director Dr. Rohantha Athukorala commended the officials of SLSI for their commitment and passion to drive the project and said Rotary would support the SLSI Chairman to get as many organisations as possible to be SLSI certified on ‘COVID-19 control’ so that Sri Lanka’s economy could recover and livelihoods could be protected. 

The SLSI is the only organisation that is in Sri Lanka authorised to certify and award standardisation quality in Sri Lanka and is under the leadership of the President of Sri Lanka. 

The Stop the Spread campaign launched by Rotary last April is the only structured campaign to drive ‘new normal behaviour’ focusing on the youth of Sri Lanka. The National project has been able to bring 15,000 likeminded power individuals from Rotary, Rotaract and Interact that contributed to ‘social advocacy and implementing project on the ground’ that has secured a strong share of voice in the media due to the fact that the best athletes of Sri Lanka volunteering to be opinion leaders for the project. 

A total of 280 top athletes who are either Commonwealth, Asian Games or the South Asian medallists including top national cricketers and ruggerites are the brand ambassadors of the program which is endorsed by the Ministry of Sports and the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka, said Athukorala.

The value of the campaign exceeds Rs. 2 billion in commercial value given the certification process that also comes to play with the mandate of Sri Lanka Standards Institute (SLSI), added Athukorala.