BSCS Senior Officer Exam key terms

The principle that all persons and institutions, including the government itself, are accountable to publicly known laws that are applied equally and enforced impartially.

A constitutional arrangement dividing government authority among executive, legislative, and judicial branches so that each branch checks the others and no single branch becomes dominant.

The system by which each branch of government can limit or oversee the actions of the other branches, preventing abuse of power and preserving constitutional equilibrium.

The power of courts to examine laws, executive acts, and administrative decisions and declare them invalid when they conflict with the constitution.

The constitutional guarantee that government may not deprive a person of life, liberty, or property without fair procedures and reasonable, lawful standards.

The constitutional provisions that protect individuals from abuses of state power, guaranteeing freedoms such as speech, assembly, religion, and protection against unlawful searches and arrests.

The independent constitutional body that administers the Philippine civil service, sets qualification standards, and decides personnel cases in the public sector.

A personnel management approach in which hiring, promotion, and retention are based on demonstrated ability and performance rather than political affiliation, kinship, or personal favor.

The systematic grouping of jobs into classes based on duties, responsibilities, and qualification requirements, used to set salary grades and equitable compensation.

The periodic, structured evaluation of an employee's work outputs, behavior, and competencies against agreed targets, used for development, rewards, and personnel decisions.

Planned learning activities that build employees' knowledge, skills, and attitudes so they can perform current duties effectively and prepare for greater responsibilities.

A deliberate process of identifying and preparing capable employees to fill key positions when vacancies arise, reducing disruption and preserving institutional knowledge.

The shared values, beliefs, norms, and behavioral patterns that shape how members of an organization interact, make decisions, and respond to change.

The structured methods used to prepare people, processes, and systems for organizational transitions, minimize resistance, and sustain new ways of working.

The management of government revenues, expenditures, borrowing, and assets to achieve public objectives efficiently, transparently, and within legal limits.

The annual financial plan enacted by law that authorizes the government to spend specified amounts for specified programs and purposes within a fiscal year.

The power of a chief executive to reject particular expenditure items in an appropriations law while approving the rest of the measure.

The practice of keeping government spending, borrowing, and deficits within sustainable limits so that public finances remain stable and credible over time.

The policies, procedures, and safeguards an organization uses to protect resources, ensure reliable records, and prevent errors, fraud, and misuse of funds.

An independent examination of financial records, operations, and compliance with rules, conducted to verify accuracy and recommend improvements.

The systematic examination of policy problems, options, and consequences to inform decisions about whether and how government should act.

A method that compares the total expected benefits of an option with its total expected costs, often in monetary terms, to judge whether it is worthwhile.

A visual or tabular description linking a program's resources and activities to its intended outputs, outcomes, and long-term impacts.

An explicit explanation of how and why a planned intervention is expected to produce desired results, identifying assumptions and causal pathways.

The systematic assessment of a program's design, implementation, and results to determine whether it achieved its objectives and how it might be improved.

A measurable variable used to track progress toward an objective, such as the percentage of beneficiaries served or the average time to process an application.

Information collected before an intervention begins, used as a reference point for measuring change and judging whether targets were met.

The process of selecting a subset of a population for study so that findings can be generalized to the larger group within known margins of error.

A determination that an observed result is unlikely to have occurred by chance alone, typically assessed against a chosen probability threshold such as five percent.

A statistical measure of the strength and direction of association between two variables, which does not by itself establish that one causes the other.

A statistical technique for estimating the relationship between a dependent variable and one or more explanatory variables, often used for forecasting and policy modeling.

The identification of parties affected by or interested in a decision, together with assessment of their influence, interests, and likely positions.

A formal process of soliciting views from citizens and affected groups before a policy or regulation is adopted, intended to improve legitimacy and quality of decisions.

The openness of government operations, including timely disclosure of budgets, decisions, and performance information so that the public can hold officials accountable.

The legal entitlement of citizens to access government records and documents, subject only to clearly defined and narrowly drawn exceptions.

The protection of personal information from unauthorized collection, use, disclosure, or loss, governed by laws that balance individual rights with legitimate public needs.

The practices, technologies, and policies used to protect systems, networks, and data from unauthorized access, disruption, or damage.

The use of information and communication technologies to deliver public services, share information, and enable citizen participation in governance.

The gap between groups that have effective access to digital technologies and skills and those that do not, which can deepen social and economic inequality.

An error in reasoning that makes an argument invalid or weak, such as attacking the person rather than the issue or assuming what one seeks to prove.