Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Judy M. Taguiwalo said that the department is closely looking into the issue of accreditation for civil society organizations (CSOs) working with the department.  She said that there have been various inquiries from various CSOs and members of the media regarding the matter.

“We are reviewing the process also in accordance with the instructions of President Rodrigo R. Duterte to cut red tape when it comes to the processing of government documents,” Sec. Taguiwalo said.

In her first week of office, Sec. Taguiwalo met with officials of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) on the issue, and during the meeting, the Secretary was made aware of the various concerns of private and government organizations regarding the accreditation guidelines.

She explained that even before the implementation of the CSO accreditation system of the DSWD,  NCCA already had a stringent system of accrediting  cultural, artistic and academic organizations applying for financial support from the NCCA. It has been doing this since 1998. With the new guidelines, CSOs already vetted by NCCA had to apply for accreditation with DSWD to receive the funds from the NCCA.

Sec. Taguiwalo said that while it is true that the issue of accreditation of CSOs by the DSWD is an offshoot of the Napoles scam, “There are also very valid and compelling reasons to review the DSWD’s accreditation process for CSOs because it is very evident that they are too stringent and has an effect of discouraging CSOs that have programs that genuinely seek to help their members or even the public at large,” she said.

Sec. Taguiwalo said that the task of accrediting non- social welfare organizations is relatively new to the DSWD as its previous mandate was to accredit private social welfare organizations or institutions. Traditionally, the DSWD accredits social welfare and development agencies as its main function as a regulatory body. This time, accreditation involves organizations seeking public funds.

The General Appropriations Acts (GAA) for 2014 and 2015 laid down that all government agencies will be allowed to transfer funds to CSOs but only after securing accreditation from the DSWD. The guidelines for accreditation were issued jointly by the DSWD, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), and the Commission on Audit (COA) in consultation with other agencies.

“When we arrived at the DSWD, we found that the documentary requirements are numerous. We are one with NGOs and partner agencies in the goal to make the process of accrediting CSOs easier and less circuitous, but we must also ensure the 100% credibility of the CSOs and what their services are to the public or their specified beneficiaries or audiences. We cannot have a repeat of the Napoles scam wherein bogus CSOs were given accreditation – unknowingly by offices in the Congress and the Senate, as well as other government agencies,” she said.

“Given this, we are reviewing the process of accreditation implemented by the DSWD with the goal to make it less tedious, even as we retain its credibility,” Sec. Taguiwalo continued.

Sec. Taguiwalo said that what is also important is to weed out  the list of the DSWD-accredited CSOs, specially the ones with tie-ups with government agencies that were dragged into the Napoles scam and alleged to have worked with allies and officials of the Benigno C. Aquino III administration to pull off the scam.

“These CSOs are the ones that have tie-ups with the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

A 2015 COA report has it that many of the agencies mentioned in relation to the Napoles scam still exist.  Among them are the National Dairy Authority and National Agricultural and Fishery Council (NFAC), which are DA agencies; Natural Resources Development Corp. (NRDC), which is under the DENR; and, the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF).

Others named are the National Livelihood and Development Corp. (NLDC), a subsidiary of Land Bank of the Philippines; Technology Resource Center (TRC), which is under the Department of Science and Technology (DOST); and, ZNAC Rubber Estate Corp. which is attached to the DA.

Sec. Taguiwalo has already assigned   Undersecretary for Institutional Development (IDG) Group Mae Fe Ancheta-Templa to lead efforts on behalf of the DSWD to review the CSO accreditation issue and to work with the COA and the DBM on the same.

For her part, USec. Ancheta-Templa said that some proposals are already in the pipeline.

“As far as the documents are concerned, we are open to  allow CSOs to provide certified true copies or photocopies of some of the required documents, instead of the originals. We are also classifying CSOs as either implementing or beneficiary CSOs. The concept of a “beneficiary CSO” was introduced last year, where a “CSO Beneficiary” refers to “a group of individuals directly affected by a particular social condition. Many CSOs belong to this group, especially that these organizations “receive” fund/grant from the government to perform their special roles and functions in their respective community (in a manner that is still within the bounds of law), rather than being a direct co-implementer of a government program,” Ancheta-Templa explained.

The Usec. said that the accreditation process undertaken by “beneficiary CSOs” is more flexible when compared to that by “implementer CSOs”. For example, certificates of registration with pertinent government agencies, business permits, and BIR registration (among many other requirements) are not required for beneficiaries.  “Still, we want to make the process fair to both the beneficiary CSOs and the implementer CSOs, so we will still work on the guidelines with the DBM and the COA to ensure this,” Ancheta-Templa said. #