DOF asked to hike salaries of BIR, Customs personnel

Two senators have asked the Department of Finance (DOF) to raise the monthly pay of personnel of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to address their staffing problems and help clean up these corruption-plagued agencies. Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, chair of the Senate finance committee, said the lack of personnel had been hounding the BOC and the BIR. “These are very sensitive positions [that are] linked to graft and corruption, and performance. If we really want good people [to work in the government], we need to make [their posts] special,” he stressed. Citing the DOF’s records, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said the BIR lacked a total of 7,724 personnel while the BOC had 2,761 job vacancies.

—MARLON RAMOS

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