The Development Academy of the Philippines continued its fine track record in assisting the public when it was able to complete 90.69 percent of its transactions with the public for the first quarter of 2017, surpassing its overall target of 90 percent.

This came to pass when the government’s premier training and research institution was able to complete and resolve 39 out of the 43 transactions referred for resolution to its various units.  The percentage was just a tad lower than its overall percentage of compliance of 91.66 percent for the whole of 2016.

A total of 213 calls was actually received by the DAP’s Public Affairs Desk.  These are broken down into 65 in January, 60 in February and 88 in March.  In terms of type of call, these are further broken down into 72 requests for the schedule of seminars or courses being offered to the public by the DAP, 66 personal calls, and 75 for other types involving such queries as facilities reservation, employee verification or collection.

The DAP’s Public Affairs Desk was created in 2009 in compliance with Republic Act 9485, also known as the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007 or ARTA, which aims to improve the quality of service being rendered to the public by government offices and agencies.  In connection with this requirement, the DAP has committed itself to accommodate all kinds of queries from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. without noon break.

Because of this, all appointed personnel and alternates of centers, offices and units of the institution are expected to attend to phone calls at all times.  Under the agreed standard of this policy, the acceptable number of phone rings should not exceed five times.  Compliance with this five-rings policy has ranged from 76.19 percent to 89.28 percent over the first three months of the current year.