Timogan, R.A. (2016). Scheduled and mobile outreach fidelity bonding services (Unpublished thesis). Public Management Development Program, Development Academy of the Philippines.

Public Management Development Program. Middle Managers Class. Batch 8. Capstone Paper Thesis (PMDP-MMC)--Development Academy of the Philippines.

As one of the platform of the present administration towards “Daand Matuwid”, one way or the other, we should do our part as a public servant and an ordinary citizen to promote good governance and fight against corruption towards positive change. The government is equipped with the laws and regulations designed for the betterment of the country. Before it became a law, many processes and deliberations, sessions and debates among our elected law makers for one purpose, the law should have a significant effect and outcome for existing problem.
The Bureau of Treasury (BTr) is mandated under Executive Order No. 449 (E.O. 449) to process fidelity bond application of all Accountable Officers and Employees of all National Government Agencies (NGA’s), Government Owned and Controlled Corporations (GOCC’s), State Universities and Colleges (SUC’s) and the Local Government Units (LGU’s) – including the Barangay Officials shall, whenever the duties performed permits or requires the custody of funds or property for which he is accountable shall be his fidelity insured or bonded pursuant to Revised Administrative Code of 1917 Act. No. 2711 Chapter 15 Section 313-335 also known as the Public Bonding Law (PBL),
At present the Bureau of Treasury has no police power for the strict implementation of the law that provides sanctions and penalties for those who do not observe the PBL. The Bureau’s function is limited only in the administration of processes of the fidelity bond application. That is why the compliance of PBL became an optional especially to rural areas where they are required long hours of travel from their work station going to the nearest BTr office and some island provinces where payment of boat fare is more expensive than the fidelity bond premium.
The proponent exert its effort to come-up with the national statistics on ono-compliance of the barangay officials with the public bonding law and we found out that not only in the rural areas that the problem on non-compliance of the barangay officials with the PBL are rampant because data shows in figure 5 that the NCR is No. 2 with the highest percentage of non-compliance – not to be alarmed with ARMM as the No. 1 non-observant of the law.
The Re-Entry Project “Scheduled and Mobile Outreach Fidelity Bonding Services” identifies the causes for non-compliance of the PBL and summarizes it into two significant factors which are: (1) The lack of awareness of the barangay officials with the Public Bonding Law; and (2) The distance of the nearest BTr office from their work stations.
The Bureau has many proactive measures to address the problem, to name a few is the to write a reminder letter to barangay about fidelity bond, another is the proposal of eBonding project wherein application of fidelity bond can be done in through the BTr website to address the long hours of travel and the cost incurred to transact to the nearest BTr office which if realized and implemented has a positive impact on PBL compliance. The eBonding if implemented just like any project of the government has it own weakness and one of that was anticipated by the proponent as the eBonding project will not work in areas without internet access.
The ”Scheduled and Mobile Outreach Fidelity Bonding Services” which was modeled to the “Service Canada – people serving peoples: Scheduled Mobile Outreach Services” is a project wherein government services are brought closer to the public. Canada was known to be the prime movers on eGovernance, transactions are done through the tips of fingers at the convenience of your own home but Canada government wanted to expand the services offered to areas that are less fortunate to have easy access on the internet and at the same time, there are people who prefer a face-to-face transaction.
Through the project, the proponent’s objective is to have a significant increase of PBL compliance of the barangay officials. One way to achieve its objective is to address the factors causing the non-compliance. The project addresses the first factor on lack of awareness by providing barangay officials a BTr Citizen’s Chapter booklet wherein all information on the PBL, the BTr hotline, the requirements and procedures of application are illustrated. The BTr hotline is open anytime for any questions and clarifications and they are welcome anytime in any BTr office for further discussions on the topic which was already done during the launching of the project which the BTr personnel offered informal orientation seminar by having a healthy conversation on the subject matter.
Another factor on non-compliance with the PBL of the barangay officials allocates long hours of travel and cost of travel are sometimes more expensive than the amount of fidelity bond premium. The fact that the Philippines is composed of many island barangays, municipalities and provinces. Way of transportation is expensive, thus the ReP addresses this factor through which the BTr will conduct a scheduled and mobile outreach service to specified cluster stations once a week. The mobile office was donated by the project collaborative partner which is the LGU Don Carlos, Bukidnon which is free from rental, free light and water and the LGU offered one Job-Order personnel to help the BTr operation.
The project was launched December 17, 2015 which was the last working Thursday of the month as the project is open for fidelity bonding processing only every Thursday of the week. The next two Thursdays falls to happen a regular holiday, which is December 24 and 31, 2015. For the one month duration, form the project launching on December 17, 2015 until January 19, 2016, a significant change of PBL compliance can be felt wherein 14.44% decrease on non-compliance from 39.98% on (December 16, 2015) before project implementation to 25.54% on January 19, 2016. Financial point of view, the BTr collections of a total of P278,797.50 through which 57.09% or an equivalent of P159,157.50 are collections coming from the clustered barangay.
Such significant increase of compliance of the barangay officials with the PBL are primarily because the causes of the main problem was properly identified and addressed by the Re-Entry Project. The success of the project was because of the Rep team who are strategically selected for areas of concerns which their field of expertise plays crucial part for the whole process. The “Scheduled and Mobile Outreach Fidelity Bonding Services” is one of the solution and a factor for good governance because as government officers and government elected officials should be a role model to the community and one way and simplest way to do it is to follow the law formulated by our lawmakers. Government representative should be the first to obey the law for community to follow.