Davide announces P15K bonus for Capitol staffers

Each of the provincial government’s 1,500 employees will receive a P15,000 cash bonus, Gov. Hilario Davide III announced in yesterday’s celebration of Cebu’s 444th founding anniversary.

The amount was the same as last year’s bonus.

But this time, the province added a new incentive from the Civil Service Commission called the Program on Awards and Incentives for Service Excellence (Praise).

Under the scheme, employees of the top five performing offices of the executive and legislative branches of the province together with the district hospitals will receive additional cash incentives of P1,00 to P3,000 each.

In his speech yesterday at the Capitol Social Hall, Davide said the P15,000 amount of the Collective Negotiation Agreement (CNA) incentive was agreed upon after meetings with the Provincial Board.

He said they were not able to use the modified employee performance evaluation system of former governor Gwendolyn Garcia due to the May elections.

“Aside from that, I was not around during the period covered by the evaluation,” Davide told the crowd of employees, officials and visitors.

Same amount

Last year, each employee received P15,000 as a cash incentive with some receiving more based on their performance evaluation for the year.

But the governor said all employees will receive the same amount regardless of their evaluation.

He said the bonus will cover Capitol personnel who were hired on or before December 31, 2012.

Davide said the incentives should remind employees to render “excellent public service.”

“Let me assure that next year if the budget permits, we will make the awards bigger,” he added.

Provincial Budget Officer Danilo Rodas said the bonus will cost Capitol coffers P23 million while the awards given throughout the celebration amounted to P2 million.

He said the budget will be submitted to the PB for approval.

For the executive department, the Provincial Planning and Development Office placed first in the Praise awards. They were followed by the Provincial Budget Office, Provincial Accounting, Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office and the Provincial Governor’s Office.

Magpale’s staff in the Vice Governor’s Office received the top award for the legislative department followed by the office of PB Member Thaddeus Ouano and the Provincial Secretary’s Office.

Rounding out the awardees in the provincial government were the office of PB members Bernard Calderon and Alex Binghay

For the district hospitals, Balamban got first place followed by the hospital in Paras, Danao, MJ Cuenco and Daanbantayan.

Employees of offices that placed first in the Praise awards will receive P3,000.

The other offices will get P2,500 for the second prize, P2,000 for the third and P1,500 and P1000 for the fourth and fifth places, respectively.

Davide asked Capitol employees to practice camaraderie and respect for each other and retain their integrity as public servants.

Vice Gov. Magpale thanked employees for their “unchanging” service especially during the standoff instigated by the Garcia camp late last year.

“You acted as if nothing was happening. The services were not interrupted,” she said. /Peter L. Romanillos, Correspondent