ACTIVITY NO.

By: Rona Mae Oquindo

The project that I want to discuss in relation to my field of discipline in public

administration is the Water System Project (Level III) in one of the barangays in the locality. The

barangay has been given an incentive by the national government through a project that will answer

their need for water supply. This project aims to deliver clean water to the constituents in an

affordable value. They have experienced change – from fetching water from dugwells and

traveling long distances up to availability of water supply on their doorstep. The project is being

managed by a cooperative created through the effort of the barangay in order to establish an income

generating water supply facility in order to finance the operational bills and employment of skilled

personnel. During the early operation of the project, it was satisfactory to the consumers and it has

been a great help to all. However, as time goes by, consumers are complaining about the

transparency of expenses of the cooperative. After a yearlong operation, consumers are

complaining on the bookkeeping of the cooperative since there are numerous concerns about the

accuracy of the payments as listed on the record. Since the personnel do not have enough access

with technology in the area, it was their practice to note everything in a notebook or record book

only. The accuracy of the hand-written data is always being questioned during the stakeholders

meeting and became a consistent issue at hand. Also, the income collection and the expenditures

were also being questioned. Thus, we can say that the trust and confidence of the consumers to the

cooperative officers and employees is on a tight position and the operation of the said project is

on the verge of being halted.

This problem is greatly related to the establishment of trust and confidence of the

stakeholders involved. This project might expand and may result to great income in which will
benefit the consumers or members if solved. Thus, I recommend that the officers and the members

of the cooperative shall revisit the by-laws and the approved operational directives they have

established before the project starts. There is what we call management-as-organizing or also

known as the theory of planning, which has been presented as a counterpart to management-as-

planning (Johnston 1995; Johnston and Brennan 1996). Management is focused on structuring the

physical, political, and cultural setting of action. It is important to note that it is not a question of

internally consistent theories, but of theoretical orientations, that have implicitly been used. Also,

it is noteworthy that the approach of management-as-organizing is not exclusive; rather

representations and plans are accepted as one possible basis of purposeful action. They also need

to invest in technology adoption in which the LGU can help them. Various programs in placed can

be delivered to the cooperative so that they can improve their delivery of services as well as their

book keeping tasks. Technology provision and other necessary materials, trainings and skill

enhancement might become their inputs in order to come up with a great output which is related

to enhance management of operations as aligned with Theory of Execution. Based on Ballard and

Howell (1998), they found that in conventionally managed construction, a realization rate of 50–

60 percent is typically found for weekly tasks. Largely this low rate could be explained by missing

inputs or resources during the execution of the task. Lastly, in studied projects, meetings have

formed the basis for the major part of the decisions. Regular meetings need to be held in order to

address problems as early as possible as part of what we call theory of control (Loid, 1999).

Evaluation, validation and improvement shall be made from time to time and regularly in order for

the project to be sustainable and successful.

Sources:

Ballard, G., and G. Howell. (1998). Shielding production: Essential step in production control. J.
Constr. Engrg. and Mgmt 124 (1): 11–17.
Johnston, R. B., and M. Brennan. (1996). Planning or organizing: The implications of theories of
activity for management of operations. Omega, Int. J. Mgmt. Sc. 24 (4): 367–384.
Loid, David. (1999). Limitations of the project monitoring concept. Construction Economics and
Organization. Proceedings of the Nordic Seminar on Construction Economics and
Organization (pp. 53–59), 12–13 April 1999 in Gothenburg. Department of Management
of Construction and Facilities, Chalmers University of Technology.