Good morning to all my fellow government officials and employees joining today’s 5th Government Quality Management Program (GQMP) Symposium.
Assalamu alaikum wa Raḥmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
First, I would like to thank the Development Academy of the Philippines, headed by President and CEO Atty. Engelbert C. Caronan Jr., for once again inviting me to deliver a keynote message at this event anchored on the Government Quality Management Program or the GQMP.
As you know, GQMP is a national government program that promotes and enhances quality improvement in the public sector. One of its components features institutionalizing the Service Quality Standards, assuring consistency in the quality of public services. Designed to steer the bureaucracy towards more citizen-centric service delivery, the program puts citizens at the heart of public institutions while instilling a quality culture.
Tulad po ng sinabi ko sa katatapos lamang na 2023 Public Sector Quality and Productivity Improvement Forum—kung sa private sector po ay mayroon tayong tinatawag na customer service, tayo rin po sa gobyerno ay may pinagsisilbihan, at ‘yan ay ang ating mga kababayan. After all, the government exists for and because of the people. This means that, as public servants, our fellow citizens are our clients.
While we are already committed to delivering standardized and high-quality services to the citizens—which is why we are gathered here today—allow me to nevertheless highlight how we can achieve this especially by listening.
Let's take a look at your theme: “Translating Insights from Clients to Standardize Service Experience”.
As the theme suggests, understanding the client’s context is vital in driving the standardization of their service experiences. This is a very good continuation of last year’s theme, “Towards Quality Service for all Citizens” because it espouses the call to actively listen to our clients or our constituents to be able to provide them with quality services that truly respond to their needs.
Likewise, obtaining and utilizing research-based and citizen-centric information in developing and delivering government services—one of the topics to be discussed today—will not be possible without actively listening to the citizens.
Surely, services crafted through active citizen engagement will be more accepted and supported by the people.
Indeed, effective and responsive public services, created and implemented by listening to the voices of the people, should be standardized, enhanced, improved and even institutionalized.
A very notable example of this is the GQMP, which capacitated 990 key officers and staff of Public Sector Organizations in 2022 alone; provided technical assistance to 111 agencies as of December 2022; and certified 200 agencies under the ISO 9001:2015 Standard Quality Management System as of April 2023.
At the Department of Budget and Management, we also make sure to actively listen to our kababayans, and so we are also working hard to contribute to the improved productivity and public service delivery of the bureaucracy through the Fiscal Year 2024 National Budget, as well as through structural reforms such as the proposed amendments to the Government Procurement Reform Act, the continuation of the initiatives of the Philippine Open Government Partnership, and the DBM’s digital transformation roadmap.
As such, I call on each of you to listen and learn from today’s discussions. Most of all, learn to listen to our fellow Filipinos. Dahil ang pagpapabuti ng ating mga programa, sistema, gobyerno, bansa, at maski na ng ating mga sarili ay nagsisimula sa pakikinig. At sa ating pakikinig, matutugunan natin ang tunay na mga pangangailangan ng ating mga kababayan tungo sa Bagong Pilipinas.
Thank you very much. Wabillahi Tawfiq Wal Hidaya, Wasalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu.
