NSCB - Statistically Speaking... MEASURING THE EFFICIENCY OF GOVERNMENT SERVICES

MEASURING THE EFFICIENCY OF GOVERNMENT SERVICES
by Dr. Romulo A. Virola ¹
Secretary General, NSCB

Almost always, we hear complaints about the inefficiency of the government bureaucracy. Some of these complaints are valid, but others are not.

Chapter 22 of the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) is about bureaucratic reforms. It lists a number of goals, strategies and action plans to improve the quality and efficiency of public service. Specifically, it talks about restructuring a number of government agencies. But while organizational restructuring is meant to improve efficiency, the desired result will not necessarily materialize. Sometimes, it is the culture of the organization that needs to be transformed, a change that does not always come with reorganization. Regardless of the approach, our people deserve better government service than what is perceived by many to be the tradition in the bureaucracy. Towards more palpable good governance, therefore, it would be desirable to have an objective quantitative measure of how efficiently government service is being delivered.

It is noteworthy that the websites of a number of government agencies now contain information on the processing time of their transactions with the public. Unfortunately, not all agencies disseminate this information and so these agencies, in a sense, do not live up to their obligation to be transparent with their public. I therefore congratulate agencies like the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Government Service Insurance System, the Land Transportation Office, the National Statistics Office, the Pag-IBIG Overseas Program Office and the Securities and Exchange Commission², for their efforts to serve their public better by providing information thru their website on how they deliver public service. At the same time, let us challenge the others missing on the list to provide similar information to their public in the very near future.

And just how efficient is government in providing services to Juan and Juana de la Cruz? Let us see what these agencies claim. The table below lists the eight government agencies with the avowed time it takes them to process some transactions.

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES PROCESSING TIMES

Agency	Type of Service	Duration
Land Transportation Office (LTO)
	Driver's License (NEW)
	Student	Within One (1) day
	Professional	Within One (1) day
	Non-professional	Within One (1) day
	Conductor	Within One (1) day

	License Renewal (All Types)	Within One (1) day
Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA)	Passport Processing	Usually six (6) working days but only
		two (2) working days for OverTime processing
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)	Company Registration	Within One (1) day
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)	Business Name Registration	Within One (1) day (15-20 minutes)
Government Service Insurance System (GSIS)¹	Loans Granting
	Salary	Eight (8) hours
	Regular Policy	Eight (8) hours
	Optional Policy	Eight (8) hours
	Housing	Five (5) days
	Pension	Four (4) hours

	Retirement Claims	Five (5) days
Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR)	TIN Application	Within One (1) day
National Statistics Office (NSO)	Civil Registration	Normally fourteen (14) working days. However, for Certificate of No Marriage, minimum of twenty (20) working days. 2


Pag-IBIG Overseas Program Office	Refund of POP Savings	Three (3) working days.

¹ For other transactions, see the GSIS website at http://www.gsis.gov.ph
² For delivery by conventional mail, documents may reach the recipients several days after the processing period

The table seems to indicate that except perhaps due to the huge volume of civil registration transactions handled by the National Statistics Office, the time it takes the seven other government agencies to deliver their services to our people is acceptable. Presumably, we get our passports, Tax Identification Number (TINs) and driver’s licenses fast; we are able to register our company and business names within a day; we get our GSIS loans within hours; and our Overseas Filipino Workers can get a refund of their savings with the Pag-IBIG Overseas Program within three days! But of course, I am not sure whether the information contained in their websites is consistent with practice.

Just like what came out in the papers recently that the Germans were the most brainy Europeans, while “British men love football twice as much as their women”! The first “statistic” comes from a study by a professor from Northern Ireland’s University of Ulster and is based on a computed average IQ; the second comes from a survey by TNS Global conducted for a football World Cup sponsor. In the first case, I do not have the resources to validate the claim; the second is an example of how the media manipulates and lies with statistics. The story is based on the finding that “ some 94 % said they would never stop loving their team no matter how bad they were while 52% would gladly ditch a relationship that was not going well”. Non sequitur ba tawag diyan?

So like the statistics on the supposedly brainy Germans and the lousy British lovers, the “statistics” on the processing time of transactions with government agencies are not necessarily correct. We have to learn to evaluate the accuracy of such statistics. In fact, we must always assess the quality of statistics released thru the media, particularly those coming from opinion pollsters, before we believe them.

Those of us who transact business with the eight government agencies cited should find it easy to provide support or contrary evidence on the processing time information they publish on their websites. For example, when I renewed my driver’s license, I was actually more than impressed with the less than two hours I had to wait at the LTO in Makati! However, for two of my staff who applied for a salary loan with the GSIS last year, it actually took GSIS six days for one and two days for the other, to release their loans. Not really long delays, but not in accordance with the GSIS website.

Maybe, it is about time we started compiling statistics on the ACTUAL processing time of government transactions. This way, we will be able to validate the information on government websites. For the information of the public, the Philippine Statistical Development Program 2005-2010 currently being finalized under the stewardship of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) includes under Chapter 25 on Anti-Corruption and Good Governance, the formulation of statistical programs on the generation of indicators on the quality of services provided by the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. Hopefully, when these and similar statistics get widely disseminated to the public, good governance may yet be the standard in government service!

Reactions and views are welcome thru email to the author at ra.virola@nscb.gov.ph.

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¹ Secretary General of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) and Chairman of the Statistical Research and Training Center (SRTC). He holds a Ph. D. in Statistics from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, USA and has taught mathematics and statistics at the University of the Philippines. He is also a past president of the Philippine Statistical Association.

² The list is by no means complete as we were able to access only a few of the websites, including some which did not contain information on processing time.

Posted 08 May 2006.


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