QC gov’t: errors delayed teachers’ allowances

Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte on Wednesday assured public school teachers clamoring for the release of their supplemental allowances that they would receive the money soon.

Belmonte clarified that the delay was due to discrepancies in the teachers’ payroll records although she promised to look into their complaint that it was mainly caused by the transfer of the payroll system to another bank.

“I was told that the change in bank resulted from a directive from the Department of the Interior and Local Government that local government units must bank with e-cash ready institutions to comply with the ease of doing business policy. At this time, Landbank was unable to comply with the e-cash ready requirement. It only had an ATM system,” she added.

In a statement, Belmonte said the payroll records submitted by the Schools Division Office (SDO) contained incorrect account numbers, misspelled names and outdated civil statuses, among other discrepancies.

“An automated system detects inaccuracies, and when there are inaccuracies, documents need to be returned to the SDO for correction,” she added.

Following a meeting on Monday with concerned officials, Belmonte said the other reasons for the delay were “purely administrative/clerical.”

She cited the breakdown of the payroll computer system, the lack of permanent payroll personnel, and the shift to debit or credit card/ATMs with embedded microchips for improved data security.

Mabelle Caboboy, president of the Quezon City Public School Teachers Association, said the release of their allowance had been delayed by at least six months. The amount included their supplemental allowance of P6,000 to P8,000, and quarterly allowance of P4,500.

Caboboy said the payroll errors were only “minimal” and insisted that “the [delay] all started when BPI Globe BanKO started disbursing our salaries” in 2013.