Tagum Cooperative bags gold award for second consecutive year in the recently conducted A1 Competitive Choice for Excellence in Service and Soundness (ACCESS) branding last July 25-29, 2022 at TC Building, Gante Road, Magugpo West, Tagum City.

ACCESS Branding is conceptualized by National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO) together with the Association of Asian Confederation of Credit Unions (ACCU) that is designed to develop primary cooperatives into world class institutions by allowing them to provide excellent service and be the best provider in micro-financing. ACCESS Branding is set to arm cooperatives with the right tools needed to build the organization with a wide quality assurance strategy.

Meanwhile, the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) obliged cooperatives to submit annually the Coop Pesos Rating in monitoring the viability of the cooperative. Additionally, Coop Pesos Rating covers nine (9) different aspects to investigate and  inspect the operation. This yields a total of seventeen (17) indicators as a form of assessment.

However, ACCESS Branding through the initiative of the Asian Confederation of Credit Unions (ACCU) developed the Balance Scorecard architecture comprising eighty-six (86) indicators in four perspectives of operations namely,  financial perspective, customer-member perspective, internal business perspective and learning and growth perspective. ACCESS Certification is more stringent as indicators are more accurate in reflecting the financial state of the cooperative. Despite the heightened standards, Tagum Cooperative managed to retain the gold award for the second time and exceeded six (6) points in comparison from last year

The said ACCESS Branding validation was spearheaded by the Audit Lead Sharon Marie S. Dy, CPA together with Carmille C. Ramos, CPA, Kairos Le Lasta, CPA, Phoebe Marie V. Ramirez, MBA, and KC Lyn C. Bulaong.

The ACCESS certification, of which Tagum Cooperative garnered gold branding is a result manifested from exemplary leadership and continued improvement to  systematize the mechanism in the cooperative all for the common good of members and the community.  

While Tagum Cooperative qualifies the standard for ACCESS Branding, the audit team challenges the cooperative to heighten the control mechanism in strategic planning monitoring procedures, reconfigure the hierarchical structure in the Administrative Department, enhance the generation of Integrated Computerized Accounting System Aging Report and reinforce the knowledge of Quality Management Department in relation to indicators determined in the ACCESS.