Gov’t agencies given deadline to upload FOI manuals on websites

Presidential Communications Assistant Secretary Kris Ablan PRESIDENTIAL FILE PHOTO / ALFRED FRIAS

The Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) on Thursday said the government agencies were given until October 1 to upload their Freedom of Information (FOI) manuals on their respective websites.

Communications Assistant Secretary Kris Ablan said the agencies have one month to comply before the validation process on their eligibility​ ​to​ ​the​ ​Performance-Based​ ​Bonus​ ​(PBB)​ ​starts.

“Agencies must upload their Freedom of Information (FOI) People’s Manuals to their respective Transparency Seal pages on or before 1 October 2017,” Ablan said in a statement.

“This is a part of a new requirement under the 2017 guidelines for the criteria and conditions for the grant of​ ​the​ ​PBB,” he added.

Out of 195 government agencies, 150 or 76.92 percent have already complied, Ablan said.

He added that 37.32 percent, or 53 out of 142 government-owned and controlled corporations, have complied with their FOI requirement, while only four out of 113, or 3.54 percent, state colleges and universities have done the same.

“The inclusion of the FOI criteria was an initiative of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on the Harmonization of National Government Performance Monitoring, Information and Reporting​ ​Systems​ ​or​ ​Task​ ​Force​ ​AO​ ​25,” Ablan said.

Each agency, he said, should send a letter to the PCOO requesting for a validation of their compliance.

“Once confirmed, the PCOO will then issue a Compliance Certificate signed by the FOI Program Director,” he said.

“This certificate will serve as the official document that will be​ ​submitted​ ​to​ ​the​ ​Task​ ​Force​ ​AO​ ​25. Deadline for the validation request letter is at 12:00 midnight of 1 October 2017, Sunday,” he added. JPV