PNoy creates task force on efficiency

MANILA, Philippines – President Benigno Aquino III has created an interagency task force that would harmonize the national government’s performance monitoring, information and reporting systems.

Mr. Aquino created the task force through Administrative Order 25 dated December 21, 2011, which will recommend to the Chief Executive a “a unified and integrated Results-Based Performance Management System (RBPMS)” within the Executive.

In creating the task force, the President said there are “many deficiencies and duplication have been noted in the present performance monitoring systems and processes used by government agencies within the Executive branch of government.”

These, he said, “have resulted in redundant reports in different formats, delay in submissions, inaccurate results, and inefficiencies in performance monitoring, evaluation and reporting.”

“There is a need to rationalize harmonize, streamline, simplify, integrate and unify the efforts of government agencies mandated to exercise broad oversight of government agencies performance relative to the National Leader’s Agenda, the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2011-2016, agency mandates, commitments and targets,” he said.

The President said that “towards this end, a collaborative mechanism must be developed among these oversight agencies that will establish a unified and integrated Results-Based Performance Management System (RBPMS) across all departments and agencies within the Executive Branch of Government.”

The RBPMS will incorporate “a common set performance scorecard, and at the same time, creating an accurate, accessible, and up-to-date government-wide, sectoral, and organizational performance information system.”

The Inter-Agency Task Force “will harmonize, unify, streamline and simplify all existing monitoring and reporting requirements and processes consistent with the RBPMS that will be created.”

It will be chaired by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and co-chaired by the Office of the Executive Secretary, and will have as members representatives from the National Economic and Development Authority, the Presidential Management Staff, and the Department of Finance.

The task force will develop a Common Set Performance Scorecard, design a Government Executive Information System, and perform other powers and functions necessary to implement AO 25.

The Organizational Performance Indicators Framework (OPIF) and the Results Matrix (RM) will be the underlying frameworks for the proposed RBPMS,  to be used by all government agencies mandated to exercise broad oversight over the performance of all government agencies.

Incentives

The harmonized RBPMS will be used as basis for determining entitlement to performance-based allowances, incentives or compensation of government personnel, AO 25 said.

The task force will involve the Cicil Service Commission (CSC) and the Career Executive Board (CESB) to align the Strategic Performance Management (SPMS) of CSC and the Career Executive Service Performance Evaluation System (CESPES) of CESB to the proposed RBPMS.

The task force may invite other government departments, offices or agencies, such as the Commission on Audit and the Office of the Ombudsman, to provide insights on the harmonization process.

It will also involve the private sector, through the National Competitiveness Council (NCC), to provide inputs and aligning other advocated performance management systems with the proposed unified  RBPMS.

The Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) will serve as secretariat and technical resource institution of the task force.

The task force will submit its recommendation on the RBPMS to the President, through the Executive Secretary, within six months from the issuance of AO 25.

Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. said in a press statement on Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011, that the OES conducted meetings on the matter with NEDA, PMS, DBM, CSC and the DAP.

“It was the consensus that there is a need for a cost-effective and integrated framework to simplify existing reporting mechanisms used by the oversight agencies and ensure that the data requirements are met by the reports submitted by the government agencies,” Ochoa said.

The OES said that oversight agencies such as Neda uses RM; DBM uses OPIF, CSC uses SPMS; and CESB, CESPES.
Ochoa said that for the Philippines to attain Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact status, it had committed three Policy Improvement Processes (PIPs) to further improve good governance, among them, the introduction and institutionalization of a balanced scorecard framework.

He also said that AO 25 “is one big step toward the specific goal of strengthening the capacity of government institutions to link their respective budgets with performance outcomes and enabling citizens and civil society to monitor and evaluate these.” – Rappler.com