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By Rene Bas
Second of 3 parts
In the Senate hearing on Agile yesterday, some
senators were frustrated — and angered — by what they thought
were circuitous and evasive answers the project managers were giving
them.
We now continue enumerating basic facts about
Agile, based on our interviews with Agile people, subcontractors of
Development Alternatives Inc. (the company that won the bidding and
became USAID’s “institutional contractor” for the Agile
project) and USAID executives.
I asked them questions the answers to which will
clarify much of the senators’ doubts about how the project got to
be organized, how it is manned, how it is funded, the structure of
the relationships between the various parties involved in the Agile
project, what the project covers, etc. The answers are my own
“wrap-up” of replies to questions I posed to several men and
women.
Q. USAID hired DAI to serve the Agile
project. Why doesn’t USAID just send its own employees to the
Philippines and manage the project?
Answer: USAID is a comparatively small US
government agency. The US government believes it is more efficient
to engage specialists for particular assignments than maintaining a
large permanent staff.
USAID could not have hired people one-by-one for
the project. It doesn’t have the in-house mechanisms for the
volume of assistance that the Philippine government wanted and needs
from or under the Agile project.
The project was designed to hire a company that
would recruit management staff who would in turn oversee all the
subsequent recruitment for specific areas of activity.
The project agreement between the Philippine
government and the US government (through USAID) calls for most, but
not all, of the technical services required to implement the AGILE
project to be provided by an “institutional contractor.” This
turned out to be Development Alternatives Inc.
Q. Why was DAI hired for AGILE and not any
other consultancy and project management company? Why not Louis
Berger, a US firm that is engaged in USAID’s projects in Mindanao?
Does DAI also serve, or service USAID, elsewhere in the world?
Answer: There was a bidding. Several firms
submitted bids for the job. A selection team from the Department of
Finance, NEDA and USAID picked DAI. Louis Berger did not bid for
this job. It also takes USAID contracts in many different areas and
has contracts in many countries. DAI gets contracts from many
sources in many countries — including projects financed by other
USAID offices in other countries.
Q. For DAI to do its work effectively in
the various USAID beneficiary countries, it has to hire local
experts and skilled personnel. Is local hiring solely done by DAI or
does USAID have a hand in it?
Answer: DAI is responsible for its own hiring,
but under its contract to work for the AGILE project it needs
USAID’s approval of the candidates proposed. But USAID does not
pre-select candidates. It only reviews the candidates nominated
jointly by DAI and the Philippine organization receiving the
assistance. In other words, the officials of the Philippine
government agency in which an AGILE consultant or project personnel
works (together with personnel of that agency) has a big say in
choosing whom to hire.
Q. AGILE as an acronym for economic
development and reform activities is quite appropriate and
impressive. Is “Accelerating Growth Investments and Liberalization
with Equity” also used in other countries that USAID is helping?
Answer: The AGILE project is a Philippine
government-USAID project and just for the Philippines.
Q: Recount how the AGILE project
came to be. At what point did DAI come in?
Answer: The Philippine government and USAID
discussed the idea of this project throughout 1966 and 1997. Finally
they settled on the name AGILE in 1997. Companies did not compete to
win the “institutional contract” until 1998.
The Philippine government and USAID have been
collaborating on development projects for decades, going back to
1961 when USAID was created by President Kennedy. After the
difficult times of the 1980s, the Philippine government started a
new generation of initiatives in the early 1990s. This developed
into the “Philippine Assistance Program” supported by a
“Multi-Donor Assistance Initiative.”
It was at the beginning of this initiative when
the famous new airport in General Santos was built, with USAID
funds. This airport, along with new roads and improvements in the
ports, have contributed to making GenSan perhaps the fastest-growing
economic area in the entire country through the 1990s. And GenSan up
to now is one of the Philippines’ well-developed cities.
The success of the various new initiatives —
assisted by USAID — made the mid-1990s a period of optimism when
the Philippines was trying to take advantage of the good economic
times to attract more investment from abroad, encourage domestic
investment and reduce poverty.
By that time, the Philippine government and
USAID had done a number of narrowly focused projects for specific
sectors. But the country’s economic planners were finding a lot of
reasons to be frustrated. Every time the Philippine government
wanted to start a new initiative, egged on by success in one sector,
it could not just go ahead and launch the new initiative. They had
no flexibility. That was how the concept and the name of AGILE came
up.
The Philippine government and USAID had designed
a project that could respond to almost any new initiative related to
creating an economic environment that would pull in investment,
create jobs, reduce poverty, without having to go through months and
months and even years of bureaucratic project designs and approvals.
With the signing of JPIL No. 55, which created
AGILE as a project for implementation, the bidding to hire a project
management company could be done. DAI was hired and recruited Dr.
Ramon Clarete from the UP to head the three-person core team of
project managers. With him now are Dr. Tardif-Douglin and Matthew
Buzby (they replaced earlier staff).
Dr. Clarete was only able to start up Agile’s
real work in 1998. The first thing to do was make the rounds of the
agencies that the Philippine government and USAID had indicated in
the project design needed AGILE assistance. It took a whole year,
from the time AGILE was created in late 1997, before Dr. Clarete and
his core team and the personnel they recruited to help them to
respond to — work on — the first set of requests for technical
assistance and get some activities going. That is why the real work
began only in 1998.
Q: What about Agile’s “governance”?
And its “leadership or control structure” vis-à-vis the
agencies they are helping? Some critics say AGILE is a vehicle to
impose American will on the Philippine government? USAID Mission
Director Yates’ letter to Senate President Drilon says AGILE is
governed by a steering committee made up of the Finance secretary,
the NEDA secretary and the USAID chief of mission. How does the
steering committee work?
Answer: Each project activity is closely managed
by the Philippine government officials (or in the private sector,
the leaders of the organization) that AGILE is being assisted under
the project.
Anybody who thinks the AGILE people throw their
weight around hasn’t met people like the chairwoman of the SEC or
the Bureau of Customs commissioner and other agency heads. All of
the heads of agencies getting USAID assistance under AGILE are
strong leaders. They are thoroughly in charge. The AGILE people
sometimes have to tiptoe around them.
However, the flexibility or agility that is
built into the AGILE project as a whole has to be governed too. That
is why there’s a need for a steering committee.
The project has received many requests for
assistance from many Philippine organizations and government
agencies. All the activities done to respond to these requests must
not only satisfy the needs of the requestor. They also have to be
consistent with the strategic directions of the original 1997 design
and of the guidelines of the steering committee. What they decide
must also conform to the country’s national economic plans.
The heads of the Finance department and NEDA
determine who to send to the steering committee. Usually they send
undersecretaries and assistant secretaries. The American member is
usually USAID’s Chief of Economic Development and Governance but
sometimes the Mission Director himself attends the meetings.
The steering committee holds alternate meetings
to review progress and then to approve updates to the formally
approved work plan. The DOF convokes the meetings.
There are also several Filipino observers and
representatives of various sectors to the steering committee.
The various core project management staff —
these are the AGILE people who are found in government agencies
being assisted and called “spies imbedded in the government” by
critics — report to the steering committee. They make quarterly
reports and presentations.
These project implementation people — with
titles varying from “leader” or “task manager” to
“advisor” — work directly with officials and personnel
of the agencies and organizations they are assisting. They
report to them and work with them every day. That is why they have
to be given space and desks and chairs in these government offices.
But there are cases when the project has had to rent space.
The government agencies that have made use of
AGILE assistance are: Finance, NEDA, the Department of Budget and
Management, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Department of
Transportation and Communication, Department of Agriculture,
Department of Tourism, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Securities and
Exchange Commission, and the Bureaus of Customs and Internal
Revenue. Various committees of Congress have also been helped by
Agile.
Among the private organizations that have used
AGILE assistance are the Philippine Stock Exchange, the Exporters
Confederation and the Freedom to Fly Coalition.
Part
1 | Conclusion
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