Streamlining government
Credit to Author: BEN KRITZ, TMT| Date: Mon, 19 Aug 2019 16:16:13 +0000
IF Congress can keep itself from being distracted by unproductive nonsense it could accomplish a great deal of progressive work during the current legislative session, including the creation of two new and very much needed government departments. If handled properly — which of course, is a perpetually uncertain prospect — they could go a long way toward establishing a framework for reducing government bloat and improving efficiency.
The two proposed departments are the Department of Disaster Resilience and the Department of OFW Affairs, both of which would create larger umbrellas over their respective areas of concern, and both of which appear to be favored by Congress. The Department of Disaster Resilience, which we’ll refer to as the DDR, would gather the government’s disaster mitigation and relief programs under a single agency, while the Department of OFW Affairs, or DOA, would do the same for the management of overseas workers’ concerns.
The current policy and administration of both of these matters are a fragmented, inefficient mess. Disaster management is handled by National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), an ad hoc body comprising 39 members representing 28 different national departments and agencies, and representatives of local governments, civil society organizations, the private sector, and the Philippine Red Cross, which typically ends up doing most of the work.
The sentiment that created the NDRRMC and its mirror bodies at the provincial and municipal levels was reasonable enough, but the results have been less than satisfactory according to the well-known principle that “none of us is as stupid as all of us.” Disaster response and rehabilitation is chronically slow, unnecessarily costly, and characterized more by conflict than cooperation. Risk management, or so prevailing wisdom says, can be managed according to collegial policy, but actual disaster response, which requires actions that necessarily lie outside the norm, requires a hierarchical approach, preferably one managed by specialists.
The new DDR can work if that is the approach that is applied. The alphabet soup of ‘councils’ should be abolished, and the new agency staffed with people who actually know what they are doing and not political appointees.
The current administration of the institution of exported labor is not quite as messy as that of disaster response, but it does involve a number of government offices including two bloated and in some ways redundant agencies, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration (OWWA). Even as large as these two agencies are, they seem to struggle to keep up with the volume of work that must be done; the major impetus behind the proposal to create a new, single agency was the vast number of complaints that they act very slowly, particularly in instances when workers overseas are in distress.
Merging the two agencies to create an even bigger one risks increasing the bureaucratic inefficiency, but if the government has the good sense to enlist the help of experts in organizational design, that does not necessarily have to be the case. Eliminating areas of overlap, rolling similar functions into larger departments, equipping the new agency with an effective and up-to-date information system, and above all, right-sizing the workforce with qualified personnel will make it work. Treating the DOA as its parent agencies are now – inefficient by design and filled with political rewardees – will not.
Making the positive assumption, however, that the new DDR and DOA will be soundly constructed and skillfully managed, they could serve as good models for downsizing the government, reducing costs, and improving efficiency. A few possible changes that could be considered include eliminating the National Food Authority (NFA) and having the Department of Agriculture absorb its functions; doing the same with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), the Board of Investments, and the Department of Tourism, all of which could be assimilated by a revamped Department of Trade and Industry; and merging the Department of Transportation and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
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As a final thought, it seems appropriate to acknowledge the tragic passing of one of the country’s more colorful public figures, environmental and social activist and one-time Environment Secretary Gina Paz Lopez, whose death from brain cancer at the age of 65 was announced yesterday (Monday).
I only met her once, when during her brief stint as the head of the DENR she paid a visit to The Manila Times for a roundtable discussion. Up to that time, knowing of her only from what I read or heard in the news, I frankly had the impression that she was a dingbat. Nevertheless, I thought her appointment by President Duterte was sublime; who is better to run the DENR, after all, than an unequivocal environmentalist. So when offered the chance to meet her and hear what she had to say, I felt bringing an open mind was at the very least an appropriate courtesy.
And I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Ms. Lopez was not, in fact, a dingbat at all, but one of the sharper people I’ve met in these parts in a long time. Oh sure, she had a personality that could wear one out just being in the same room with her – imagine standing next to the sun for about an hour – but people who are so uncompromisingly committed to anything, particularly causes that are so unarguably noble, are rare and encourage hope. May she rest in peace.
ben.kritz@manilatimes.net
Twitter: @benkritz