DPWH to formulate code of conduct for employees

Aiming to fight graft and corruption and further improve public service, the Department of Public Works and Highways is set to come up with a customized code of conduct for its employees to follow.

Recently, DPWH Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. ordered the conduct of a workshop among officials and rank and file employees of the government agency on what they think about the proposed code and what should be included in it.

Likewise, Ebdane said that the workshop will also sustain if not improve the DPWH as No. 8 among 70 government agencies in terms of compliance to the requirements of the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission's Integrity Development Action Plan for the first semester of 2006.

"We will accelerate the crafting of one of the remaining doables or measures which is the formulation of DPWH Code of Conduct," Ebdane said.

Participants of the workshop will be composed of representatives from the DPWH Management Committee, directors and assistant directors of DPWH service, bureau, regional, and project management offices, district engineers, division chiefs and rank and file employees.

"Codes must be developed through proper consultation with all stakeholders. Top-down does not work, those whom you do not consult, will be our weakest link," Ebdane added.

Meanwhile, DPWH Internal Audit director Melvin Navarro said that once established, the code must be observed by the agency head down to the rank-and-file employees and it must be evident that non-compliance will be very costly for those concerned.

"Codes must be reinforced by proper awareness, education and training of its users, this is a continuous process," Navarro said. The first workshop will be done in Manila on November 28 at the DPWH central office.

DPWH is reportedly known as among the most corrupt agencies of the government. In fact, in surveys conducted by the Social Weather Stations, it never fails to be in the list.

In the 1999 and 2000 surveys of the SWS, it was tagged as the most corrupt among government agencies. - Wenna A. Berondo