MANILA, Philippines - To minimize corruption and improve effectiveness in the delivery of government services by strengthening project monitoring and evaluation systems of government projects, particularly in school building program (SBP), the Department of Education (DepEd), together with other stakeholders, forged a partnership with the Government Watch (G-Watch) of the Ateneo School of Government (ASoG).
According to Education Secretary Armin Luistro, DepEd, Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Office of the Ombudsman (OMB), Girl Scouts of the Philippines (GSP), and Boy Scouts of the Philippines (BSP) will institutionalize Bayanihang Eskwela (BayEsk) being spearheaded by G-Watch of ASoG through a memorandum of agreement. BayEsk is a recognized community-based public-private monitoring of school building projects.
"As we address the essential learning resources in the education system, we should always uphold our integrity as an organization," said Luistro. "We should set good examples to the people and to other government agencies, specifically in terms of the utilization of public funds," he added.
Luistro stressed that department should observe transparency and accountability all the more because the DepEd has the biggest budget allocation from the national budget and it is the largest bureaucracy in Philippine government.
The DepEd chief issued DepEd Order No. 21, series 2011 to set the guidelines on the institutionalization of BayEsk as a community-based public-private monitoring of projects under the CY 2011 Regular School Building Program (RSBP) and in areas experiencing acute classroom shortage.
"BayEsk is a way for civil society organizations (CSOs) to help the government reduce corruption and raise the quality of governance in the country," Luistro noted.
The first and second rounds of BayEsk enabled the testing of tools that allowed certain communities in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao to participate in the monitoring of school-building projects. "The third run aims to institutionalize the gains of BayEsk by providing a mechanism for civil society participation in the monitoring of the implementation of projects under the regular SBP and the areas experiencing acute classroom shortage," he added.
