DA to open ‘Matuwid na DAAN’

TACLOBAN CITY — “This is our response to the call for transparency in government transactions by the present administration and a manifestation of our desire to win back the Filipinos’ trust and confidence,” said Director Gary Glenn Fantastico of the Department of Agriculture (DA)-Information Technology Center for Agriculture and Fisheries (ITCAF) during his visit to DA Regional Field Unit 8 on June 7, 2012.

Dir. Fantastico, together with ITCAF Consultant Mr. Carlo Cachuela, introduced to the DA-8 management the Matuwid na DAAN Project which stands for the Department of Agriculture Accountability Network. It is slated to be launched in July 5, this year.

The ‘Matuwid na DAAN’ is basically a web portal which provides readily-accessible information on DA’s performance and accomplishments. Virtually, it will give face to DA’s advocacy on adhering to accountability and transparency in pursuing food security while promoting public awareness of its community-focused projects and activities nationwide.

It will feature a running account of all DA projects vis-à-vis their fund allocation and cumulative disbursements, completion period, percentage of accomplishment and other relevant data, including regularly updated photos, so as to enable the public to track down and evaluate the proper use of agency resources.

Dir. Fantastico added, “This website will empower the DA constituents and the rest of the nation to contribute to the effective and efficient implementation of agriculture-related projects in their respective localities by reporting their actual status, validating receipt of government assistance or otherwise, sharing knowledge and skills, introducing best practices, or simply becoming aware and making full use of the government’s services for community-based agricultural development.”

Meantime, Dir. Wilson Cerbito, DA-8’s regional technical director for research and regulations and the concurrent UEGIS-NFRS-ISAFI project manager commended the DA-ITCAF for coming up with such a project for it has opened an opportunity for DA-8 to show its outputs on the Inventory System on Agriculture and Fishery Investments (ISAFI) Project which was already implemented in the four provinces in the region (Leyte, So. Leyte, Biliran and E. Samar).

RTD Cerbito further revealed that ISAFI Project will be rolled out to the two remaining provinces (Samar and N. Samar) by July, this year, as ordered by the DA Central Office.

“We are very fortunate because in the whole country, Eastern Visayas is the only region where ISAFI will be implemented in all provinces,” he said. (JESSA FAYE E. MACAPAÑAS)

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Posted by lsde on Jun 18 2012. Filed under News1. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.