State agencies have 1 month to comply with FOI manuals before assessment of bonus

August 31, 2017

Malacanang warned on Thursday government agencies which have not yet  complied with the requirement on the Freedom of Information manuals that their bonuses might be affected.

According to Presidential Communications Operations Office Assistant Secretary Kris Ablan, the FOI People's Manuals must be uploaded to the agencies' respective Transparency Seal pages before the validation process on the eligibility​ ​to​ ​the​ ​Performance-Based​ ​Bonus​ ​(PBB)​ ​officially​ ​starts on or before October 1, 2017.

"This is a part of a new requirement under the 2017 guidelines for the criteria and conditions for the grant of​ ​the​ ​PBB," he said.

As of August 31, 2017, of the 195 national government agencies, 150, including 22 departments, or 76.92 percent have already complied with the requirement.

Only about a third or 53 out of 142 government-owned and controlled corporations have uploaded their FOI manuals.

There was poor compliance from the State Universities and Colleges, with only four out of 113 have complied with the requirement.

The inclusion of the FOI criteria was an initiative of the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Harmonization of National Government Performance Monitoring, Information and Reporting​ ​Systems​ ​or​ ​Task​ ​Force​ ​AO​ ​25.

The PCOO issued a memorandum circular​ ​on​ ​the​ ​validation​ ​process.

Ablan said each agency shall send a letter to the PCOO requesting for a validation of their compliance.

Once confirmed, the PCOO will then issue a Compliance Certificate signed by the FOI Program Director.

This certificate will serve as the official document that will be​ ​submitted​ ​to​ ​the​ ​Task​ ​Force​ ​AO​ ​25, the PCOO official said.

Deadline for the validation request letter is at 12:00 midnight of October 1, 2017, Sunday, he added. Celerina Monte/DMS