THE Department of Agriculture (DA) on Thursday said it has created a joint project management office (PMO) for two World Bank-funded initiatives.
Department Order 13, Series of 2026, signed on April 20 by Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., mandated the management of the Philippine Sustainable Agriculture Transformation (PSAT) program and the Technical Assistance for Sustainable Agricultural Transformation (Tasat) project — two undertakings bankrolled by World Bank official development assistance.
“The creation of a unified PMO is critical to ensure that these programs are implemented efficiently, transparently and in full alignment with our reform agenda,” said Tiu Laurel. “This will allow us to accelerate delivery and ensure development assistance translates into tangible gains.”
PSAT is a policy-based loan that ties funding releases to performance indicators, while Tasat provides technical support to advance institutional reforms.
A project director and a deputy project director will lead the PMO, ensuring compliance across all units and overseeing daily operations.
The office will also have specialized result area (RA) units focusing on delivering specific reform outcomes linked to the World Bank’s disbursement indicators, directly connecting funding to performance.
The RA units will be supported by technical working groups from across the DA, including offices that handle rice systems, high-value crops, logistics and internal services such as procurement and audit.
This framework reflects a shift toward a more integrated, “whole-of-agency” execution instead of a siloed one.
In addition, there will be a dedicated project support team handling the office’s operational backbone, including finance, procurement, human resources and technical advisory. This would ensure that the office avoids delays and complies with donor requirements and regulations.
The structure addresses long-standing coordination gaps, the DA said, noting that it would help the agency manage overlapping mandates and bureaucratic bottlenecks. Monitoring systems and audit mechanisms linked to loan disbursements may also improve accountability, though overly rigid compliance requirements could slow implementation.
Funding for the PMO will be sourced from project allocations and existing resources from the DA, subject to government auditing regulations.
