MANILA, March 21 (PNA) — The government will launch the Foreign Aid Transparency Hub (FAiTH) Version 2.0 next month to ensure greater transparency and accountability in the handling of donations being extended by foreign donors to devastated communities in the Visayas region.
The FAiTH Task Force unveiled Version 2.0 of the website in a briefing for the diplomatic corps at the Department of Foreign Affairs Thursday, Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said in a statement. The FAiTH Version 2.0 will be launched on April 25, he said.
In the older version of the FAiTH (Version 1.0), the government recorded foreign aid and assistance given in the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines, whether in the form of pledges, actual cash and non-cash donations.
Lacierda said that in the Version 2.0 of the FAiTH website, foreign embassies will be given access to input and update assistance attributed to their countries on the online portal.
This includes updating the amount of assistance given, indicating whether this has been converted from a pledge into cash/non-cash assistance, and specifying all recipient organizations, he said.
The Department of Foreign Affairs will be giving embassies usernames to update their contributions to FAiTH. It will be available April 7, he said.
FAiTH’s Version 2.0 will include the tracking of aid and assistance given to the national government. The Commission on Audit (COA), as an access observer, will audit the aid and assistance coursed through the national government, the Palace official said.
“FAiTH is transitioning from transparency to accountability: accountability that is bolstered by the forthcoming participation of our foreign partners, and the firm commitment of the national government to build-back-better, which necessarily includes accounting for every centavo and peso that goes to helping our countrymen rebuild their lives after Typhoon Yolanda,” Lacierda said.
“Version 2.0 of FAiTH, therefore, reflects the essence of solidarity and camaraderie we witnessed in the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda, in which the entire world came together to help the Filipino people.”
As the FAiTH website transitions into a new phase, Lacierda called on the private sector and other aid organizations to be transparent and accountable on the aid and assistance they have been receiving.
“The commitment embodied by FAiTH is a partnership: as government holds itself accountable to the public, so too do we encourage the Filipino people to take an active part and remain vigilant in ensuring that the help generously given to our countrymen is maximized,” he said. (Philippine News Agency)
