Process Evaluation of the Deployment of Service Attachés or Representatives of Certain Government Agencies

This study evaluates the deployment processes of service attachés of eight government agencies. It reviews the current systems, frameworks, and criteria in place for deploying service attachés at the relevant partner agencies and the Department of Foreign Affairs based on laws and policies (i.e., agency-specific and interagency). Further, it reviews the monitoring and evaluation systems in place that have captured the measurable outputs and performance of the deployed service attachés. Findings validate that the processes involved in the deployment of service attachés are based on policies (i.e., department orders, administrative orders, and joint circulars) of the concerned partner agencies and governed by legal bases (i.e., Executive Order 292, EO 74, series of 1993, and the Philippine Foreign Service Act of 1991 or Republic Act 7157). While laws and policies for a uniform rules and regulations on assignments at Foreign Service Posts (FSP) exist, partner agencies have varying degrees of policy consistencies (i.e., creation of a selection committee for recruitment of service attachés, roster, or rotation pool) and discrepancies in the implementation of their own policies (i.e., length of stay at FSPs). On the other hand, the monitoring and evaluation systems of the partner agencies proved to be a challenge to obtain. While some of the government agencies’ home service units confirmed the existence and submission of performance and evaluation reports by service attachés or heads of post, actual samples of these reports were not received. Thus, this study opens further research on the examination of the service attachés’ performance and evaluation reports, a review of their content, and an analysis of their outputs vis-à-vis the government agencies’ budget costs. Comments to this paper are welcome within 60 days from the date of posting. Email publications@pids.gov.ph.