The National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) National Project Management Office recently conducted spot checks in the provinces of Zamboanga del Norte, Capiz, and Catanduanes.

“We have to continuously check our data and make sure that what we are sharing and will be sharing with other agencies and stakeholders are accurate”, Director Vincent Andrew T. Leyson, NHTS-PR National Project Manager shared.

For the spot checks, the NPMO team visited previously assessed households to conduct re-interviews and check if the guidelines set for conduct of household assessment were followed.

The team randomly identified households to visit and administered the process of household assessment. After this, the data gathered in the household assessment forms are compared to that of in the old household assessment forms. Also, the manner how the household assessments were conducted was also reviewed.

“This is not only our commitment to the project, but more importantly, to our country”, Director Leyson added.

In October 3, 2011, the NHTS-PR is set to formally launch its database. In preparation for this event, the NHTS-PR NPMO and RPMO have implemented several measures to ensure the integrity of the database. The spot check is one of these processes implemented by the project to review and improve the quality of the data gathered.

At present, the project has entered into memorandum of agreements with national government agencies such as the Department of Health (DOH), Philippine Health Insurance, Inc. (PhilHealth), and the Department of Energy (DOE). Several Congressmen and Mayors are also using NHTS-PR data in their respective local government units.