Agriculture Secretary William Dar congratulated the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) for once again gaining the highest rating among government corporations in the corporate governance performance assessment conducted by the Governance Commission for GOCCs (GCG) for 2019. For four straight years, since 2016, the PCIC emerged on top of this evaluation.
“PCIC’s excellence in governance, as attested by the GCG evaluation, is what we desire for all agencies in our department,” Secretary Dar said.
PCIC operates under the aegis of the Department of Agriculture (DA). Secretary Dar has constantly encouraged the DA family to be faithful to the tenets of ethical service as one way to finally favorably transform the image of the Department into a corruption-free agency.
The evaluation report recently published on the GCG website showed that the PCIC obtained a score of 100.52, the highest among 80 government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) that have been evaluated during the year. It shares the top ranking with the National Power Corporation.
PCIC President Jovy Bernabe expressed gratefulness at this development. “We thank the GCG for once again recognizing our continuing effort at improving our operations, as they relate to our internal and external stakeholders,” he said. He also thanked Secretary Dar for providing the impetus to enable the agency to sustain PCIC’s institutional achievement.
Bernabe also thanked and congratulated the PCIC staff at the central and regional offices for their strict adherence to the code of corporate governance, and for putting the stakeholders, especially the small farmers and fisherfolk, at the front and center of their daily operation.
The GCG initiative aims to recognize well-governed GOCCs and raise corporate governance standards and practices. It uses CGS as a tool to assess the corporate governance performance of the GOCCs. CGS involves a methodology benchmarked against the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Principles of Corporate Governance and the ASEAN Corporate Governance Scorecard.
Guided by the CGS, it specifically assesses the GOCCs’ adherence to best practices and international corporate governance standards. It is further aimed at making them at par with those of more advanced state-owned enterprises in other member countries of the ASEAN.
A GOCC’s performance is measured in the areas of stakeholder relationship, disclosure and transparency, and responsibilities of the corporation’s Board of Directors. Points are awarded when the corporation meets the criteria. A maximum of 104 points can be obtained, including bonus points. ### (DA StratComms)
