Namfrel now oversees textbook, medicine procurements

MANILA, Philippines - Aside from conducting parallel quick count, the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) is now involved in monitoring the procurement system of some government agencies. Namfrel chair Henrietta de Villa said the group now sits as observer to monitor the procurement and delivery of textbooks by the Department of Education (DepEd) and medicines by the Department of Health (DOH). Namfrel did not apply for accreditation to do a parallel quick count for the August 11 Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao polls. "Though Namfrel was not as actively involved in the just concluded August 11 ARMM Elections, [it] continues to advocate concretely for good governance through our volunteer's efforts in assisting particularly the procurement and delivery of textbooks by the DepEd and medicines by the DOH," De Villa said in a statement on the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines website. She noted that in a recent survey on performance ratings of government agencies by Pulse Asia, DepEd got an approval rating of 63 percent, while the DOH got 61 percent. De Villa lauded the positive performance of both agencies, saying that Namfrel "continues to advocate for good governance" through the efforts of its volunteers. "Namfrel will always continue to collaborate with efforts of government agencies in their pursuit of removing graft and corruption as DepEd and DOH provide the most basic services to our people and [it] is there to make sure that they do," said De Villa. Through constant inspection and monitoring of textbooks from the warehouse until these are delivered to school divisions, deficiencies that can bring losses on the government have been reduced. The monitoring project dubbed "Textbook Count" has contributed a lot in lowering the price of books by 50 percent and reducing flaws in deliveries by five percent. Another project that Namfrel coordinates with the Education department is "Textbook Walk," where volunteers and companies bring textbooks and other instructional materials to elementary schools. At the Health department, Namfrel volunteers are members in the anti-corruption unit at the department's central office. The team urges the use of stock cards for inventory and computerization of supply management both at the national and regional hospitals. - GMANews.TV