The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) recently commissioned the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) for the conduct of a thorough evaluation of its performance from its central office down to its field offices nationwide.

In signing the memorandum of agreement with DAP’s president Antonio Kalaw, DENR Secretary Ramon J. P. Paje stressed the need for a third party evaluation in the agency’s thrust to improve its delivery of services to the public.

“By pursuing a third party evaluation approach, we can gain a clearer and more detailed picture of the impact of our work through the years, as well as to bolster organizational development and leadership excellence in the department in consonance with the thrust of the Aquino administration to enhance delivery of public services,” Paje said.

Paje also expressed confidence in the DAP’s expertise in providing “objective but qualitative understanding of the areas that should be prioritized for improvement that will put the DENR in a stronger position to meet its challenges and attune its manpower and resources to effectively implement its major programs.”

Dubbed as “Promoting Organizational and Leadership Excellence in the DENR: A Performance Evaluation Program, Paje said the project seeks to enable the department craft better action plans for important DENR programs such as the National Greening Program, clean and responsible mining, air quality improvement, rehabilitation of the country’s vital waterways, and rationalizing the country’s land management systems.

Under the agreement, the DAP will come up with two reports by June of this year on the following two areas: Organizational Performance Evaluation (OPE) and Environmental Governance and Leadership Awards System (EGL Awards).

OPE will assess strategy, workforce capability delivery and organizational effectiveness and a systematic evaluation of how DENR services have been delivered.

The EGL Awards, on the other hand, will serve as the award-giving body for the exemplar DENR field executives and officers found to have demonstrated exemplary and innovative leadership qualities in meeting the DENR’s targets and have contributed to the positive perception of the DENR from the public’s perspective.