E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
In search of excellence
Sunday, 11 20, 2005
Growth is a secondary, almost incidental, result of the pursuit of excellence. The prime objective, then, is excellence, that quality that brands a thing as outstanding and superior. For instance, that “house that friend chicken built” had been for decades known for its excellence rather than for its expansion into other houses, as it were. Thus, a management maxim, if I am allowed to coin one, would be: Put the house in order first (excellence) and the household help will do what is expected of them.
Nowhere is truth of this maxim evident than in the corporate jungle of the government bureaucracy today. A government agency is only as good as its head of office who, according to his competence or inefficiency, can make or unmake that agency. We have seen how qualifications for appointed heads of offices vary with each incoming Administration, and have witnessed how mediocre heads of office invariably produced mediocre, if not tragic, results. And it is precisely the inefficiencies and cupidities of unqualified appointees that give media a reason to go on a feeding frenzy on the corporate body collectively known as the Administration.
On the other hand, the good performers - those who go on quietly putting their “houses” in order - escape the sensationalist eyes of the media and stay as the unheralded saving grace to a government that is enmeshed in “bad governance.” Very few of us, for instance, have heard of this obscure head of office who has managed to implement effective fiscal discipline in his agency, by drastically reducing the number of consultants, outsourcing additional personnel, putting a brake on excessive foreign missions and local travels, strengthening in-house training programs, compensating overtime work with a “time-offsetting” scheme, and reducing the agency’s MOOE - that often-abused milking kitty designated ambiguously as “maintenance and other operating expenses.”
Until the recent announcement that Filipino expatriates can now enjoy the fruits of their labor in gainful retirement in the country, I am doubtful that a considerable number of people have heard of Dr. Nelson “Sonny” P. Collantes and the house that he runs: the Philippine Retirement Authority (PRA). It is ironic that it should take a foreigner, Beth Day Romulo - a retiree herself who has made the Philippines her home - to bestow praise on the unheralded achievements of the PRA. She said: “At a time when many daily costs are spiraling, a more efficient system of operation has resulted in savings of expenses at PRA. . . .[The PRA’s] most recent financial figures. . . .is the single best semester report that the corporation has been able to produce in its 20 years of existence.”
Expectedly, when the reports about a government agency such as PRA begin to look rosy, the “crabs” in the body politic start wiggling their ugly claws. Sensing an opportunity to make a fast buck out of the precious dollars that many expatriates and investors are willing to plunk in to some retirement haven or facility that Collantes maintains around the country, these crabs have begun extending their feelers for the Malacañang connection. Some bright persons want Collantes dislodged from the top of the heap.
The threat of falling victim of this lamentable crab mentality obviously has not bothered Collantes. For the past two years at PRA, he has faced this threat with the same equanimity he showed when he was a student in UP Diliman, holding his front in many a tumultuous “intramural” encounter among hostile fraternities. He should not worry - he has the requisite credentials (CESO I eligibility) and a permanent appointment - and he has been doing a fine job of putting his house in order.
Which explains why in the first three quarters of 2005, as compared to an equivalent period in 2004, Collantes was able to raise the revenues of PRA while bringing down its operating costs, resulting in a 28 percent increase in net flow before taxes and foreign currency adjustments. Translated into pesos, this means PRA generated P137,000,000 in gross revenues, exceeding by P15,000,000 the gross revenues mark of the first three quarters of 2004. This jump in revenue performance can be attributed to the increase in retiree enrollment, fees collection. and improved monitoring of visitorial fees. Last year, PRA remitted to the national government P40.7 million in cash dividends and P34.1 million in income taxes. With its first three quarters of 2005 performance, PRA expects to exceed the 2004 level in remittance to the government.
This growth has been the by-product of a single-minded pursuit for excellence. Collantes, the last time we visited him at his office, appears unperturbed by pretenders to his executive chair at PRA. One can almost feel the awe and respect with which his staff, all of them performers, accord to him.
If a man's accomplishments in life are the cumulative effect of his attention to detail, we can perhaps say that the measure of Collantes’ success is not whether he has had tough problems to deal with, but whether it is the same problems he already had. And judged from his performance, Collantes seems to make each year better than the previous one.
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