Performance audit

In China, elected local officials are judged by the Communist Party in terms of quantifiable measures of performance. These include the number of jobs created, levels and types of investments, tourist arrivals and receipts, agricultural production, number of schools and students enrolled and their performance in national tests, and public health indicators.

The central government keeps track of income levels and the number of people lifted out of poverty in each area. The quality of telecommunications and transportations facilities as well as roads, bridges and airports are also considered.

Local executives’ careers are at stake in those performance indicators. They might win their posts in popular elections (yes, Juana, China has them), but their career advancement depends on the assessment of the central government in Beijing and the local overseers of the Communist Party of China.

As we have seen, elected mayors of the most prosperous Chinese cities tend to be rewarded with higher office. Because of the performance indicators and specific growth targets that they must meet, these officials have a personal stake in seeing to it that investments, whether local or foreign, can be set up in their jurisdictions ASAP, with as minimal hassle as possible, so that jobs can be created to raise income levels.

Local executives I have talked to in my visits to China told me with pride of accomplishments in competing with their neighboring cities or provinces in terms of economic and human development indicators. Those whose cities host airports compete with others to have the best and busiest gateway.

They talk about a common objective: job generation. They did this for three decades by becoming the manufacturing center of the world. These days, with affluence pushing up labor and other production costs in China, they are shifting their thrust to tourism and focusing on scientific and technological innovation to produce higher value goods.

Cutting red tape and being accountable to both voters and the Communist Party have not meant corruption-free governance in China. But officials accused of corruption in that country are generally indicted quickly, tried, convicted, sentenced and tossed into prison, with no VIP treatment or hospital detention. The process is so brutally quick there is little time for the public to make premature conclusions about guilt or innocence.

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I am reminded of the performance audits in China because of reports last week about President Aquino’s performance contract with his Cabinet.

If P-Noy is truly concerned about his officials’ performance, he should have fired several non-performers a long time ago.

The mess they created is making consumer prices go up this Christmas season. Several businessmen have told me they have resorted to air freight to ensure timely delivery of goods, but this is of course more expensive, and the cost is being passed on to consumers. As business groups have said in recent days, the congestion in Manila’s ports is far from over.

The mess in the Metro Rail Transit and the rest of the nation’s railway service is also expected to outlive the teka-teka team in charge of mass transportation. Taxpayers should be made aware of who’s to blame and about the incompetence and (if the accusations are true) corruption that have caused the daily ordeal of commuters.

If the anti-corruption battle cry is losing traction and daang matuwid is now being called daang baluktot and daang natuwad, the MRT mess and port bribery are among the causes, on top of the Disbursement Acceleration Program. Even the blitzkrieg of P-Noy’s allies’ against Vice President Jejomar Binay is affecting perceptions of daang matuwid, since the VP is also the housing czar and adviser on overseas workers.

Instead of firing anyone, P-Noy has held on to every last one of his officials, including the non-performers and those whose acts could earn him a criminal indictment once he bows out of office.

Sensing his mood, his officials in turn have held on to their posts, saying they would quit only if told to by P-Noy. Quitting is a four-letter word in this country where nobody resigns and nobody loses an election. It’s the president who takes the fall for his appointees, not the other way around.

P-Noy, because of his loyalty to his BFF, KKK and sundry others who remain in office mainly for old times’ sake, has further bloated the bureaucratic fat. Presidential adviser on food security and agricultural modernization Francis Pangilinan may be getting only P1 a year as salary. But there are surely expenditures in his office that are being charged to Juan de la Cruz, on top of the regular appropriation for the office of the secretary of agriculture, whose principal functions have been transferred to the new presidential adviser.

If P-Noy can’t trust Proceso Alcala to handle the agencies now under Pangilinan, why can’t the agriculture secretary be replaced? It’s simpler, and cheaper for taxpayers.

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And how will P-Noy assess the performance of his typhoon rehabilitation czar? The first anniversary of Super Typhoon Yolanda is approaching. With the vague mandate as coordinator of the rehabilitation effort, Panfilo Lacson has found himself largely emasculated.

Lacson found himself facing roadblocks in smooth coordination – much like any official who is tasked to increase tourism arrivals under P-Noy’s watch. This Cabinet is like the Senate; everyone is an independent republic – usually an indication of weak leadership.

The coordinator’s post could have allowed Lacson to shine on the national stage. Naughty folks suspect that’s precisely why he found himself in a straitjacket: he had to be prevented from using the post as a springboard for a presidential run in 2016.

Instead of the rehab czar distributing rehab funds to typhoon victims or talking with local officials about fund utilization, we see instead the administration Liberal Party’s “sentimental choice” for 2016, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, posing for the cameras.

Roxas’ latest meeting with local officials in the typhoon-hit areas was nearly as disastrous as his tussle with Tacloban officials led by Mayor Alfred Romualdez shortly after Yolanda struck. Scolding the local executives for failure to utilize rehabilitation funds, Roxas learned that the fault could be traced to his department, which gave fund releases the teka-teka treatment.

If this had happened in China… but of course we’re not China. The way we assess public officials’ performance is reflected in our levels of national progress.