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On 01 March
2006, in a Letter Agreement signed by its Country Representative,
Dr. Steven Rood, The Asia Foundation (TAF) formally approved
PWI’s request for assistance for its project proposal
to develop an Efficiency Measurement Tool for procurement
reform and other similar anti-corruption measures. Support
will be coming from a grant of the United States Agency
for International Development under its Transparent and
Accountable Governance program implemented by TAF. The said
Measurement Tool aims to address the call for an objective
and concrete standard of measuring changes in operating
efficiency at the agency level as a basis for evaluating
the impact of agency reform measures, particularly those
that are intended to bring down operating expenses by improving
accountability and competition in government procurement.
The support from
TAF is going to be phased with the initial work focusing
on the development of the methodology for measurement before
it is applied in a number of agencies. The scope of the
first phase includes a sampling strategy, questionnaires,
forms, and a list of data required for independent expenditure
assessment; and a survey guide for expanded implementation
in the succeeding phase.
The proposed approach
will be piloted in the Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center.
A Statistical Team and an Assessment Team have been formed
to implement the Project. The Statistical Team is led by
Dr. Ana Tabunda, a professor at the UP School of Statistics,
while the Assessment Team is led by Ms. Kristina Pimentel,
PWI Program Director. The Assessment Team is composed of
two sub-groups: the Actual Assessors and Resource Group.
The Actual Assessors Sub-Group is comprised of NAMFREL Volunteer
and BAC observer, Mr. Arturo Lim, Ms. Caye Sy, Technical
Officer of PWI and Ms. Pimentel. The Resource Group is composed
of Industry Specialist Ms. Heidi Mendoza, former State Auditor
and Ombudsman Investigator, and Ms. Virginia Garriel, Director
of the Systems and Procedures Bureau of the Department of
Budget and Management.
In the long-run,
the Measurement Tool is expected to support efforts to push
for reforms in government through evidence-based policy
making for integrity development, corruption prevention,
and organizational strengthening strategies. It is also
envisioned to help identify specific problem areas for reducing
opportunities for expenditure leakages and streamlining
of operations that are key components of Integrity Development
Action Plans of many government agencies.
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