MANILA, 17 January 2008 — Hiding under the cloak of authority, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration’s management style is not transparent that the quality and sincerity of its services are doubted by its clientele, the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), and the observing public.

This observation comes from independent labor migration researchers Dovelyn Agunias of Migration Population Institute and Neil Ruiz of the Brookings Institution, who urged the agency to make its finances and accounting funds transparent and to enable its members to “effectively communicate” with the powerful Board of Trustees.

Agunias and Ruiz evaluated the management of OWWA and finalized the outcome in their joint 32-page report last October. They said in the evaluation that “operational transparency is even more critical in instances where a fund is accused of corruption and mismanagement of funds.” They further explained that “from 1999 to 2005, the Philippine Commission on Audit reports on OWWA highlighted millions of pesos in unrecoverable or ‘doubtful accounts’ and non-liquidated cash advances. The largest of those unredeemable investments was the Smokey Mountain Project, a housing development program for the urban poor.”

They also said in the report that the “recovery of the P479 million ($9.6 million) investment in the project is ‘uncertain.’”

The two labor migration experts suggested that OWWA should install a feedback mechanism to be able to monitor the needs and get the opinions of OFWs in the job sites.

A “regular consultation” with the OFW members must be conducted through the OFW umbrella organizations as OWWA earlier planned.

The report also disclosed that OWWA, a quasi-governmental organization funded by $25 membership fees from workers or, more rarely, their employers, has only 28 percent membership translated to a small one million members out of the 3.8 million OFWs who have legal work contracts spread in 190 countries. This is only a tiny portion of the total eight billion OFWs around the world.

OWWA Administrator Marianito Roque cited as reason for the less number of members is the extension of contracts while abroad and non-renewal of membership.

Agunias and Ruiz, however, said the reason cited must be studied and analyzed carefully. They think that “unsatisfied” clientele may have opted not to renew their membership as one reason among others.

Some migrant organizations are also questioning the authority of OWWA in mandating the $25 annual membership fees.