Performance is the yardstick

Title

Language

English

Source

The Republic I (6) 1-31 December 1975

Year

1975

Subject

Philippines -- Politics and government

Marcos, Ferdinand Emmanuel E., Sr., 1917-1989 -- Speeches, addresses, etc.

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

[An excerpt of the speech by President Marcos to the Philippine Council of Management in Manila on November 24, 1975. ]

Fulltext

THE REPUBLIC Isang bansa, Isang diwa__________ Performance is the yardstick THE INCREASED emphasis that is being placed on “performance” for government management and govern ment funds was highlighted by President Marcos in a speech read before the Phil ippine Council of Management in Manila on November 24. Here is an excerpt: IN the Philippines, where the public service has been designated as the cadres for carrying out a peaceful social revolution, we cannot but regard the development of an adequate public man agement as a keystone of our total de velopment strategy. This is now the time to extend to the public sector the catalytic and li berating impact of modern manage ment. In spite of significant reforms, the Career Executive Service of the Govern ment and the Civil Service organization as a whole still remain encrusted with habits of the past, disposed to obstruct rather than facilitate action. This out look must now be cast aside and re placed by a new commitment and reso lution to facilitate action—to release energy and realize performance. This in turn will require the sharp ening of tools of management control, especially measurement of goals and performance, in the public service. In the private sector, the test of economic per formance, or the market test, if you will, normally suffices as a means of manage ment control. In the public service in stitutions, we must resolutei develop tests of performance that will substitute for the economic test. Thus every program area must be governed by a realistic and effective man agement information system. I AM today directing the Budget Com mission in the exercise of its manage ment function to require that every de partment and agency of the Govern ment submit within one month the man agement information system appropriate to each program area as contained in the budget, complete with indicators of goals and performance during the budget year. Such management information sys tems should be monitored by the Bud get Commission and made the basis of a genuine performance budget. QUITE apart from the public service as such, there are about a hundred government corporations in existence, only a minuscule number of which are viable and profitable. I hereby direct the Budget Com mission and the Reorganization Com mission to conduct a management audit of these corporations and recommend the reorganization of those that deserve to be reorganized, re-created’ or abol ished. ANOTHER critical area in public man. agement is the procurement of equipment and supplies for the Govern ment, which is characterized by ram pant red tape, duplicity, and corrup tion. I hereby direct the Budget Com mission to conduct a study of how gov ernment procurement methods can be streamlined, delays eliminated, payments immediately made, overpricing com pletely eliminated and punished, and economies of scale availed of to gen erate savings and efficiency. In this connection, the Budget Com mission shall consult with the Commis sion on Audit on the streamlining of auditing procedures to eliminate red tape and graft, in procurement activi ties. We have dismissed numerous audit ors who have been verified to engage in this kind of red tape. If there are any auditors who are found to obstruct payment to suppliers of the government, in order to create a leverage for self-aggrandizement, such auditors must be reported immediately to the Chairman of the Commission on Audit or to the Office of the President. THE Development Academy of the Philippines is at this time engaged in the training and development of public managers.' It is my desire that they prepare programmed courses that will enable the respective departments and agencies of the Government to conduct their own management development programs simultaneously in addition to the DAPs own direct programs. In this regard, other facilities for management training, such as the Asian Institute of Management and the grad uate schools of the leading universities should be increasingly linked up with the government’s own management de velopment programs, under the direc tion and guidance of the Development Academy of the Philippines. IT is also my hope that managers in the private and public sectors will inter act more closely and more frequently in the interest of advancing the com mon frontier of management knowledge and expertise. The private sector of the economy will continue to be the main engine of economic growth. But the public sector must be an engine of facilitation of growth. The management erf both sectors must therefore merge their respective strengths to be able to realize the real funclicn of management: namely, to convert human strength to productive strength. In the context of Southeast Asia, there is no question in my mind that economic and social development, which is another name for nation-building, will remain the joint responsibility of the private and the public managers. If management is a strategy for the strategic and optimal use of opportuni ties and resources, then there is no alter native to the fullest possible cooperation and coordination of public administra tion and private sector management. It is in the merger of their respec tive excellences and strengths that we shall derive the optimum vigor and wis dom for national development—the abil ity to free our peoples from the scourge of mass poverty and lead them to the threshold of substantial freedom, a bet ter and fuller life. □ ^lf there are any auditors found to obstruct payment to suppliers of the government, in order to create a leverage for self-aggrandizement, such auditors must be reported immediately to the Chairman of the Commission on Audit or to the Office of the President. POSTERS from the Commission on Audit are going up in government offices us part of the President’s drive to improve government management. Updating the budget ASIDE from any cutbacks that might arise from the austerity written into the 1976 budget, a separate longerterm factor is likely to help reorient many government programs in the com ing year. This other factor is the Budgetary Review of Programs and Projects which proceeded quietly through December and is likely to culminate in January or February with recommendations to President Marcos. The seven divisions of the Budget Commission have been constituted into task forces, some of them including technical experts from the private sector. Their task is to review whether the bud get document accurately reflects what each agency is actually doing-or alter natively whether each agency is doing what the budget document says its P.2,3 P. 4,5 P. 6 P. 7, 8, 9 P. 10, 11 P. 12 P. 13 P. 15 funds are for. The Budget Commission set out the following objectives for the intensive series of discussions: Re-examine the Program and Pro ject structure of all agencies of the Na tional Government under Performance Budget and to install a performance type budget for those without the system; Realign and eliminate redundant, duplicating or unecessary Program(s) and establish those which are relevant to the Department and/or agency func tions in pursuit of the National Gov ernment goals; Re-examine the validity and/or use fulness of appropriation language, spe cial and general provisions in terms of their contribution to budgetary effecSee next page The new budgetary emphasis Behind the energy drive Scrutiny of localofficials Looking at the corporations Fresh approaches to auditing Revamp of President's office Presidential decrees Setting standards for jobs

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