Task force created to unify and strengthen performance monitoring of national gov’t agencies

Press Release
December 25, 2011

MALACAÑANG  –  President Benigno S. Aquino III has created an inter-agency task force that will simplify, harmonize and further boost the monitoring and reporting systems of the performance of national government agencies.

Administrative Order No. 25, signed by the President on December 21, seeks the development of a collaborative instrument that will warrant “a unified and integrated” Results-Based Performance Management System (RBPMS) across all department and agencies in government.

“In line with the President’s commitment to streamline processes and systems in the bureaucracy, as well as his administration’s commitment to transparency, accountability, participatory and effective governance, our office initiated efforts to bring into line and integrate government performance monitoring systems,” said Executive Secretary Paquito N. Ochoa Jr. on Sunday.

“We conducted several meetings on this with NEDA, Presidential Management Staff (PMS), DBM, CSC and the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP), and 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,” he added.

According to Ochoa, various oversight agencies currently employ different performance monitoring and reporting systems within the Executive Branch that have resulted in redundant data, reports in different formats, delay in submissions, inaccurate results and inefficiencies in performance monitoring evaluation and reporting.

To date, oversight agencies such as the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) uses Results Matrix (RM); the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the Organizational Performance Indicators Framework (OPIF); the Civil Service Commission, Strategic Performance Management System (SPMS); and Career Executive Service Board (CESB), the Career Executive Service Performance Evaluation System (CESPES).

But with the creation of the inter-agency task force, Ochoa said a Common Set Performance Scorecard and Government Executive Information System shall be developed and designed, among others, towards addressing deficiencies and duplication in the present performance monitoring systems and processes.

Ochoa said the RM and OPIF shall be the underlying framework for the proposed RBPMS, which will be used by all government agencies mandated to exercise broad oversight over the performance of all agencies.  The harmonized RBPMS, he added, shall also be used for determining entitlement to performance-based allowances, incentives, or compensation of government personnel.

“In order to attain Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact status, the Philippine government had previously committed three Policy Improvement Processes (PIPs) to further improve good governance. One of them is the introduction and institutionalization of a balanced scorecard framework,” Ochoa noted.

“So, there is a need for this unification of the efforts of government agencies mandated to exercise broad oversight of government agencies’ performance relative to our commitments and targets, as well as the National Leadership’s Agenda and Philippine Development Plan 2011-2016.”

The Executive Secretary added this effort also strengthens public institutions in order to regain the trust and confidence of the public in government. “This measure 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.”

Under AO 25, the inter-agency task force shall compose of the DBM, as chair with the Office of the Executive Secretary (OES) as co-chair.  Members of the task force include the NEDA, PMS and the Department of Finance (DOF).

Other government oversight offices like the CSC and the CESB shall also be involved in the inter-agency task force in order to align the SPMS and CESPES to the proposed RBPMS.  The Commission on Audit and the Office of the Ombudsman may also be invited by the task force to provide insights on the harmonization process.

The private sector will likewise be involved in the task force through the National Competitiveness Council for the purpose of providing inputs and aligning other performance management systems with the proposed unified RBPMS.

The DAP, meanwhile, shall serve as the Secretariat of the inter-agency task force as well as its technical resource institution, according to the President’s directive.