COA to OP: Improve response to citizens’ complaints
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Audit (COA) has urged the Office of the President to be stricter in admonishing government agencies that fail to address the complaints of ordinary citizens received through the OP’s hotline, 8888 Citizen’s Complaint Center.
In its 2019 annual audit report on the OP, the COA said that while the Center has reported a 269.44 percent accomplishment rate last year, several deficiencies were still noted by the audit regarding its operation, including the lack of other communication channels to receive complaints apart from the hotline, delays in the resolution of complaints, and lack of clear guidelines in imposing administrative sanctions against government agencies.
The Center was created in 2016 through Executive Order No. 6, primarily to serve as venue for citizens to report prevalence of red-tape and acts of corruption by officials and employees of government agencies, government-owned and controlled corporations, government financial institutions and other government intrumentalities.
For 2019, the Center reported that it was able to process a total of 646,658 complaints and forwarded them to the concerned government agencies for appropriate action. The number of processed complaints was 406,658 higher than its target for the year, which was 240,000. The COA said this translates to 269.44 percent accomplishment rate.
However, the COA said, the output could have even been higher had the Center employed other means of communication such as short message service, electronic mail, website or webpage, social media and “any other emerging communication medium.”
“More than three years after the Center was institutionalized, only the 8888 hotline is operational...The more options available, the more people accessing the services of the Center; hence, the higher accomplishment,” the COA said.
Furthermore, the COA said the nine-day grace period given to government offices to act on a complaint was too long and contravenes EO 6 which states that concerned government agency shall act on the forwarded complaint within 72 hours.
“Giving the concerned agencies nine working days or 216 hours on the first endorsement [of the complaint] and another nine working days or 216 hours for the second endorsement defeats expediting transactions in the bureaucracy, as called for in RA No. 9485 (Anti-Red Tape Act), the basis of EO No. 6,” the COA said.
The COA said the current setup resulted in the delay in the resolution of each complaint by 144 hours or six days “contrary to the government’s declared policy in expediting government transactions, and affecting the efficiency of the Center.”
Lastly, the COA said that despite the high number of complaints processed by the Center, a review by the audit team revealed that a majority of them were not addressed by concerned agencies.
The COA’s records showed that of the 174 government agencies reviewed by the audit team, only 56 have achieved 100 percent complaint resolution rate, while 30 agencies have not resolved any complaints forwarded to them.
The COA attributed the low resolution rate to lack of provisions in the Center’s operations manual regarding the imposition of administrative sanctions for failure to act on complaints.
Furthermore, the COA said the manual was also vague as to what constitutes “concrete and specific action” on the part of the government agency.
“Since the Manual has no standard as to what constitutes a concrete and specific action, the Center could not compel concerned agencies to do certain acts as a resolution to a complaint,” the COA said.
In a reply incorporated in the audit report, the OP said the Center has already started partial operation of its SMS text access service after procuring the needed facilities and hiring of additional manpower. The OP said the Center’s Manual of Operations is currently under review to address the issues raised by the audit team and other stakeholders.
Use P1.4 billion Benpres donation
Meanwhile, in the same audit report, the COA reiterated its call to the OP to utilize the P1.412-billion fund donated by Benpres Corp. (now Lopez Holdings Corp.) three decades ago.
The COA said its review of OP’s book of accounts revealed that as of end of 2019, the entire donated amount remains in the Bureau of Treasury despite several calamities that hit the country in recent years such as the 7.2-magnitude earthquake in Bohol in October 2013, super Typhoon Yolanda that devastated the Visayas region in November 2013 and the terrorist siege of Marawi City in May 2017.
“The amount could have been utilized by the OP in mitigating poverty, and addressing the needs of the people during those times of natural disaster or calamities that damaged the properties and lives of the Filipino people,” the COA said.
The COA noted that it has been advising the OP since 2016 to come up with a masterplan for the utilization of the donated fund, but to no avail.
In a reply, the OP said it is still in the process of studying the deed of donation entered into by the OP and Benpres Corp. and other related documents to come up with the necessary guidelines and financial plan regarding the fund.
The donated amount was an offshoot of a 1990 compromise agreement between the Lopez-owned Meralco Foundation Inc (MFI) and the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) that settled the dispute regarding Meralco’s 27,776,557 common shares of stocks.
Under the term of late president Corazon Aquino, Benpress Corp. represented by its president Eugenio Lopez Jr. executed a deed of donation on Aug. 24, 1990 giving 3,333,333 Meralco shares in favor of the OP represented by then executive secretary Catalino Macaraig Jr.
The shares were converted into cash amounting to P1,383,314,609.05 in 2008 during the administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and was recorded in the OP’s book of accounts only on Dec. 30, 2010 under the term of Benigno Aquino III.
The OP’s books show that the amount has already earned an interest totaling P29.63 million as of Dec. 31, 2012, and the unutilized balance now stands at P1.412 billion, COA said.
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