Local and national agencies are conducting their own assessments on specific measures where they gave themselves high scores or rates close to targets.

Guillermo Luz, private sector chairman of the National Competitiveness Council (NCC), gave a non-categorical answer whether or not these government agencies that participate in the scored card system are overrating themselves.

Luz said it is difficult to comment on the grade that government agencies rate themselves.

But Luz admitted that the scorecard is self-assessment or something that is internal for every agency. While some of the matrix components of the scorecard are measurable, the others cannot.

For instance the Philippine National Police scorecard said they gave themselves an actual 98 percent accomplishment in 2010 on the measure “Percentage of personnel not involved in crime.”

On the measure of “Crime Solution Efficiency”, the PNP scorecard rated themselves 20 percent actual accomplishment in 2010. The target in 2011 was only 22 percent and 24 percent in 2013 and 28.49 percent in 2016.

In the case of the Department of Public Works and Highways, they gave themselves high scores of 14.85 percent for actually hitting the target of 14.85 percent in 2011 on the measure of “Percentage of flood protected area”, but this component is measurable.

On the “Composite Performance Index”, the DPHW exceeded its 65 percent target for 2011 as they rated themselves a high score of 70 percent. This measure is meant to uphold professionalism based on merit and performance.

The DPWH, which is perceived as one of the most corrupt government agencies in this country, has been trying to institute measures to minimize corruption in government projects.

The tight controls implemented by DPWH Secretary Rogelio Singson was also reflected in its survey.

For instance, on the measure “Absorptive Capacity”, the DPWH rated themselves 71 percent in 2011 as against target of 84 percent.

The agency also reported 55 percent actual percentage of projects completed within time and budget in 2010. It sets a target of 60 percent in 2011 but did not provide a score on accomplishments.

The DPWH has not really implemented projects in 2011 because their time was consumed in the reviewing of contracts and instituting reforms to plug corruption in their processes.

To validate the claims of accomplishments by these government agencies, the NCC is conducting its own customer satisfaction survey, Luz said.

Based on the customer satisfaction survey conducted by the NCC, which covered 763 enterprises on 180 local government units applying, renewing or applying for new registration, 26 percent got their permits within a day, 17 percent for 4 to 5 days, 13 percent for more than 5 days. Sixteen percent reported they were able to get their business permits within 10 minutes to 2 hours.

The NCC survey prides itself of having reduced the number of signatures and forms to fill up to one standard form.

original source: www.mb.com.ph