FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY PERFORMANCE OF MAJOR STATISTICAL AGENCIES IN THE PHILIPPINES:

ECONOMIC AND ETHICAL PERSPECTIVES

(PART1)

Maria Celeste D.L. Balanza

Graduate School, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines

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Dr. Manuel R. Morga

Professor

Graduate School, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines

CITATION: Balanza, M.C, & Morga, M. R, (2015). Financial accountability performance of major statistical agencies in the Philippines: Economic and Ethical perspectives (part 1). International Journal of Finance and Accounting 4 (5), 1-17.

ABSTRACT

The President Aquino’s administration, promoting good governance via “economic” and “ethical” delivery of public service, passed the law Republic Act 10625 on July 23, 2013. Also known as the “Philippine Statistical Act of 2013”, this act reorganizes the Philippine Statistical System by creating the “Philippine Statistics Authority”, the union of the four major statistical agencies namely: National Statistical Coordination Board, National Statistics Office, Bureau of Agricultural Statistics and Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics. This paper aims to present the financial accountability performance in terms of economy and ethicality of the four agencies. To establish materiality and reliable position on the findings, the researcher also compared it with three other NEDA-attached agencies: Statistical Research Training Center, Tariff Commission and Philippine National Volunteer Service Coordinating Agency through survey and documentary analyses in the form of performance review to see whether these institutions are economic and ethical in handling government funds and that they are performing their mandated tasks along with the set targets of the Philippine Development Plan 2011 – 2016. Survey respondents are budget and financial accountability report preparers who assessed their agencies’ capability in financial accountability performance while performance reviews comprise horizontal analyses of three budget and financial accountability reports: a) Report on Physical Plan, b) Report on Financial Plan and c) Statement of Allotments, Obligations and Balances. These reports are reflected in each of the agencies’ website specifically in the “Transparency Seal”, a form of openness scheme and transparency program of the National Government Agencies wherein the public can openly see information about the agencies as well as their different accountability reports. The respondents’ assessments and the documentary analyses were then compared using Binomial Test. The results show that there is a significant difference between the analysis of financial accountability performance and the respondents' assessment of capability in financial accountability performance in terms of economy and ethicality.

Keywords: Good governance, financial accountability performance, public financial management.

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