THE Public Attorney’s Office has emerged as one of only 14 out of 308 government agencies that obtained a perfect score of 5 or an outstanding rating in connection with the Department of Budget Management’s annual evaluation of their physical, financial, and income performance.
The rating is part of its Agency Performance Review (APR) report for 2024, said DBM Secretary Amenah Pangandaman who hailed the outstanding government agencies led by PAO as she warned those underperforming entities to catch up or have their budget cut down.
Notably, PAO posted a 100 percent utilization rate for all parameters, the DBM said in its report sent to the Department of Justice which has administrative oversight over PAO – an independent and autonomous office.
The DBM stressed that PAO has ensured that set goals were carried out within the allocated timeframe and budget.
On physical performance, the DBM cited PAO for its 83.63 percent disposition rate on 361, 857 cases it handled including the appealed cases.
Elated by DBM’s ‘remarkable rating,’ PAO chief Persida Rueda-Acosta said this would result “in a more effective, organized, and streamlined approach in rendering service to the Filipino people.”
The chief public attorney reminds her co-officials, lawyers, and staff of the importance of integrity in the agency’s expenditures as these funds are from the taxes of the hard-working ‘juan dela cruz.’
“It’s a must that up until the last centavo is accounted for,” Rueda-Acosta said.
The DBM conducted DOJ’s physical and financial performance and its attached agencies including PAO.
For its financial performance, the DBM said the DOJ’s obligation and disbursement budget utilization rates were 84.55percent and 91.14percent, respectively.
Rueda-Acosta said the outstanding rating was not just PAO’s success but also the victory of all, especially the indigents and underprivileged members of society.
“For this is an implication that PAO is a well-performing government agency, both in the physical and financial performances of banks on transparency and accountability,” she added.
Pangandaman said that agencies that fail to perform would be required to draw up a catch-up plan.
“More than penalizing them, maybe better if we can first sit down with them and then ask them to prepare a catch-up plan,” Pangandaman said.
The APR report tracks how agencies use their allocated funds as it presents the results of the enhanced review, assessment, and evaluation of the 2024 performance of the government agencies.
