BUSINESS PROCESS INTEGRATION IN GOVERNANCE

Every now and then, the government talks about streamlining its operations, but so far, no one in the bureaucracy seems to be talking about business process engineering (BPE) and its companion science, supply chain management (SCM). Some of you might be familiar with business process re-engineering (BPR) which is really the more popular term, but in the case of the government, I prefer to use the term BPE, because of my belief that most of the government processes have not been engineered in the first place. The bottom line however, is that there is a need for business process integration in the government, along with SCM.

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To illustrate my point about the need for business process integration in the government, allow me to use the existing public safety process as an example. In many countries across the world, the Interior Ministry serves as the “catch all” agency that handles all other internal matters (as opposed to the external matters that are handled by the Foreign Ministry) that are not addressed by the other line ministries. Here in the Philippines, the Department of Interior & Local Government (DILG) is functioning as our Interior Ministry and this is perhaps the reason why it usually absorbs many residual functions that could not be handled by the other line departments.

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In the organizational structure of the DILG, the police, fire and jail functions are lumped together under the umbrella of “public safety”. This is probably a bureaucratic invention that took form out of practical necessity, because there seems to be no other country in the world where these three municipal functions have only been centralized, but have also been clustered together. The Philippines is also probably the only country in the world where the jail personnel are considered as part of the “uniformed” services, complete with the implied military ranks.

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To begin with, the name of the Bureau of Jail Management & Penology (BJMP) appears to be a misnomer, because the facilities run by the local authorities are really not supposed to be “jails”, because they are only housing “accused suspects”, and not “convicts”, because in theory, they are still awaiting court decisions to be convicted or not. For all intents and purposes, these “jails” are more in the nature of “detention centers” or “dormitories”, if you please. The BJMP counterpart in the national government, the Bureau of Corrections (BUCOR) also suffers from a bit of a misnomer, because the buzz word in their line of work should really be “rehabilitation”, and not “correction”. Jointly taken together, the “membership” of the BJMP and the BUCOR in the “public safety” umbrella is a bit off tangent, not unless it is only as a figure of speech that they are considered to be performing safety functions.

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As far as I know, the Philippines is also one of the few countries in the world where the disaster mitigation function is still being handled by the military. Well, there could be a technicality in this regard, because the Department of National Defense (DND) is really supposed to be a civilian agency, even if they are on top of the military establishment. By comparison for instance, the federal emergency management function in the USA is handled by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a civilian agency. By the way, “emergency management” appears to be a better term, since “disasters” per se could not be “managed”. By definition, catastrophes such as typhoons, tsunamis and earthquakes are only the causes of disasters, not the disaster itself. By the way, disasters could hardly be “coordinated” either.

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No matter how you would look at it, the “public safety” functions that are handled by the DILG and the “disaster management” functions that are handled by the DND are parts of one and the same supply chain or business process that could be, or should be integrated. At this point, we should note that the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) is only a “council” and not a line agency as its name implies, although its supervising agency, the Office of Civil Defense (ODC) is part of the bureaucracy. Down the line, the NDCC has subordinate councils in the regional, provincial, municipal and local levels, all of them not operating as line functions.

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“Homeland Security” is a concept that transcends “public safety”. As a matter of fact, it also seems to transcend “national security” because in the American protocol, the DHS is a full department, while the National Security Agency (NSA) is not, even if the National Security Adviser has Cabinet rank. Although the DHS was just recently created, it is deemed so important, such that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that is already decades old was placed under it. Picking up from the recent experiences of the DHS however, the civilized world could not help but notice that it makes sense to integrate all the “safety” and “security” functions into one supply chain.

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The Makati City Government has created a “Protective Services” sector that integrates the police, fire, jail, rescue, public safety assistance and ambulance functions into one integrated supply chain. Public assistance is provided by the Department of Public Safety (DPS), formerly the Makati Public Safety Assistance (MAPSA) Group. As part of the integration, members of the Makati Rescue Team accompany ambulance units to provide Emergency Medical Team (EMT) services as they are deployed from the Ospital ng Makati (OSMAK). All members of this sector are interconnected to each other through an integrated voice and data communications center.

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As I understand it, the bulk of the “first line” manpower used by the NDCC in the field is under the DILG, consisting of the members of the “uniformed services” and civilian volunteers. The latter term is partly confusing and is also a bit of a misnomer, because in theory, the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) and the BJMP are all supposed to be civilian agencies. The “second line” of manpower is provided by the DND, consisting of soldiers, the real “uniformed services” people. As it looks now, the NDCC is supposed to be part of “preparedness”, although it is not directly in control of the people who are supposed to be under them.

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It is just my observation, but is it really possible for a mere “council” to be both responsible and accountable for the overall public safety concerns in the whole country? As I understand it, “councils” do not have a legal personality, so they could hardly be blamed for anything. The way the NDCC is structured now, it is really just a “coordinating” council, so much so that the actual blame for negligence or inaction could easily be blamed on the subordinate councils at the lower levels.

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In my opinion, it is about time that the function of the NDCC be elevated to an executive agency with a Cabinet rank, just like the DHS. For good measure, the responsibility of this new agency should include man-made disasters, and it should include terrorist threats. Come to think of it, it should also include the management of environmental threats. Let us make sure that we include air pollution, as it is now a “slow motion” emergency.