Businessmen rank BSP as top performing gov’t agency

Senior business executives polled by the Makati Business Club last June 25 to July 16 have rated the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas as the top performing government agency in the first six months of 2004 with a net score of 87.4 percent.

Also among the top five performing government agencies were the Department of Trade and Industry (jumping to second place in July from fifth place in January 2004), the Department of Agriculture (climbing to third place from eighth place), the Supreme Court (rising to fourth place from 12th place), and the Department of Tourism (but dropping to fifth place from second place).

Conversely, businessmen rated the Senate (falling to 33rd place from 31st place), Commission on Elections (dipping to 32nd place from 29th place). House of Representatives (slightly advancing to 31st place from 32nd place), Department of Public Works and Highways (retaining the 30th slot), and Appeals and Lower Court System (descending to 29th place from 26th place) as the five worst performing agencies in the first half of the year.

In terms of net scores, the five most improved government agencies turned out to be the Supreme Court (gaining 43 percent from January to July 2004), the Department of National Defense (increasing 41.9 percent, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (improving 36.8 percent, the Philippine National Police (rising 32.7 percent), and the Department of Justice (advancing 31.4 percent). The PNP and DOJ, however, still retained their net negative ratings in the survey.

On the other hand, the five government agencies that suffered the largest drops in their performance net scores were the Department of Budget and Management (dropping 31.1 percent), Traffic Management (losing 23.9 percent), the Bureau of Customs (retreating 19.6 percent), National Economic and Development Authority (decreasing 15.3 percent), and the Department of Tourism (shedding 12.6 percent). Traffic management and the Bureau of Customs were given net negative scores by businessmen.

Business executives gave positive scores to 17 out of 35 agencies for their performance in the first half of 2004, a slight improvement over 16 agencies which received positive net ratings for their performance in the second semester of 2003. While the net scores of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Department of National Defense turned from negative to positive, the Department of Education’s net score slipped from positive to negative.

Cabinet Appointments

Businessmen also listed their top picks for the President to retain in the Cabinet and key government agencies. Trade and Industry Secretary Cesar V. Purisima received the highest approval score of 77 percent; followed by Budget and Management Secretary Emilia T. Boncodin, 71.3 percent; Health Secretary Manuel M. Dayrit, 67.8 percent; Executive Secretary Alberto G. Romulo, 65.5 percent; BIR Commissioner Guillermo L. Parayno Jr., 63.2 percent; Agriculture Secretary Luis P. Lorenzo Jr., 60.9 percent; Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon J. Soliman, 56.3 percent; and Energy Secretary Vincent S. Perez, 55.2 percent.