DBM’s Diokno: Overtime pay for BI officers ‘unfair’ to rest of bureaucracy

Budget Sec. Benjamin Diokno on Thursday reiterated that the compensation scheme at the Bureau of Immigration is illegal, with its overtime pay system “unfair” to other government workers.

Diokno noted “corruption” in the decades-old practice of directly spending the express lane funds (ELF) collected by the BI for the overtime pay of its workers, especially contractual and job order employees.

“This is not correct, it is not right that two compensation systems exist side-by-side,” he said at a press conference. “Yes, it is unfair for the rest of the bureaucracy that they have a system like this.”

Diokno pointed out that the Constitution requires a standardized compensation scheme for all government officials and employees.

At the press conference, he presented a computation of BI employees’ overtime pay, saying it reaches up to 200 percent of their basic monthly salary—way beyond the maximum overtime pay allowed under a joint circular signed by the DBM with the Civil Service Commission (CSC).

Diokno also showed that the BI has been collecting an average of P1.2 billion a year from the ELF. In 2016, some P784 million went to overtime pay, P470 million for salaries of confidential agents or job order personnel, and P28 million for health insurance.

Diokno said he will ask the Commission on Audit (COA) to look into the compensation scheme, and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to check whether the personnel have been paying taxes.

“This corrupt system has been going on for so long, kasi walang accountability here,” he said. 

He also hinted at a possible involvement of COA and BIR personnel for how the system dragged on for years.

“Probably COA just closed their eyes in the past, ‘no? ‘Di nila pinapansin ‘yun, o baka kasama sila dito sa mess na ito… Puwedeng because they’re part of it. Binibigyan sila, I’m not sure, I’m not saying that, but it’s possible. Bakit ‘di chine-check ng BIR, ‘di ko rin alam,” he said.

“So this actually opened a can of worms. Maraming implications ‘to. We are going to fix this once and for all,” he added.

‘Personnel audit’

Diokno also pointed out a seeming discrepancy in the statistics of BI workers, saying he will ask the Commission on Civil Service (CSC) for a “personnel audit.”

“Alam mo ‘yung statistics namin is less than 1,000, pero sabi nila 2,000 na [‘yung mga nag-leave]. Kaya nga we want transparency here … Somebody is telling a lie here,” he said.

The bureau earlier claimed that thousands of its officers have been on leave, while dozens others have resigned, since President Rodrigo Duterte vetoed a provision in the 2017 budget that allowed the use of the ELF to augment pay for personnel—a move that they said has since led to a delay in release of salary.

Passengers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), meanwhile, have started to endure longer queues at the immigration counter because of the shortage of officers.

But Diokno said the BI “cannot blame” the DBM over the delay because most of the 2017 budget has already been released.

Diokno also scored the bureau for leaving more than a thousand plantilla positions unfilled, including the 936 positions created after the President’s veto.

He said job order and contractual workers at the BI could avail of this, hinting that many seem to insist on the compensation scheme because they are “not qualified.”

“Nagko-complain sila na overtime nang overtime, eh ang dami nilang unfilled positions, so there must be a deliberate effort on theri part not to fill these positions para maka-overtime sila. A rational manager will fill up those positions para ‘di mabugbog ‘yung employees mo, ‘di ba? Pero they keep on asking for the overtime,” he said. 

Diokno met with Justice Secretary Vitaliano II and BI Commissioner Jaime Morente on Thursday afternoon to discuss the problem the conflict in personnel's pay has been causing at the airports. — RSJ, GMA News