Balanga, Philippine Navy Bag top international awards

The city government of Balanga and the Philippine Navy have been inducted into the prestigious Palladium Balanced Scorecard Hall of Fame for Executing Strategy.

They got the recognition during the recent Shaping the Future through Positive Impact Summit held in London and organized by the Palladium Group.

Considered the gold standard for strategic performance worldwide, the award is given to organizations that have created positive impact, measured using the Balanced Scorecard technology created by Drs. Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton.

As he accepted the award for Balanga City, Bataan 2nd District Congressman Jose Enrique S. Garcia III said, “Our implementation of the balanced scorecard in the city of Balanga proved to be a game changer that has empowered our 1,000 employees and 100,000 citizens. From being a typical small city in the province, Balanga is transforming into a vibrant, active city with knowledge-loving people.”

For the Philippine Navy, the award served as a seal of approval and a challenge to continue innovating.

Accepting the award on behalf of the organization, Chief of Naval Staff Rear Admiral Gaudencio Collado Jr. said, “We began in such dismal conditions in 2006, but now, I stand before all of you, proudly saying that we have risen above the shadows of antiquated ships, inefficient systems and processes, and poor governance.”

As recipients of the award, the city government of Balanga and the Philippine Navy’s cases can now be studied by other institutions worldwide that are seeking their own breakthroughs and transformations.

The city government of Balanga was cited for its creative strategy, which sees the city becoming a University Town by 2020 and a robust hub for business.

The number of registered businesses has so far more than doubled and gross sales of these businesses have grown by 529 percent (from P1.3 billion to P6.88 billion) since the city began its good governance program in 2007.

By focusing on education, Balanga has also almost doubled its number of government scholars from 1,535 in 2007 to 2,921 in 2015;, and has attracted 400 percent more tertiary students from outside the province of Bataan.

The Philippine Navy, the first national government agency to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, began its transformation journey in 2006 after recognizing the need to upgrade its capabilities and gain strategic focus.

Pursuing its 2020 vision of becoming “a strong and credible Navy that our maritime nation can be proud of,” the organization worked on using technology to improve its financial, human resource, and operations monitoring and evaluation processes.

One example is the development of the Annual Plan and Budget Software, which resulted in increased efficiency and transparency in the management of financial resources.

Better financial systems and budget planning have allowed the Philippine Navy to acquire strategic resources crucial to its modernization.

The automation of its payroll system has also resulted in an increase in recovered unauthorized payments to personnel from P11.4 million in 2010 to P13.7 million in 2015.

It also developed a “One Stop Shop” Clearance System and Integrated Personnel Management System, which reduced the processing time of clearances from five days in 2008 to one day in 2015.

These improvements in internal process led to the Philippine Navy reducing instances of corruption, and better fulfilling its mandate, as validated by a 91 percent Unified Command Satisfaction rating from the Armed Forces of the Philippines and a 91.76 percent Stakeholder Satisfaction Rating.

Both institutions were endorsed for the award by the Institute for Solidarity in Asia (ISA), an advocacy group founded by civil society leader Jesus Estanislao that implements good governance programs to improve public service delivery at the national level, and raise community incomes at the local level.