Incentives, instead of pay hike, set for gov’t workers in 2015—DBM chief Abad

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—There will be no pay increase for the 1.4 million government workers in 2015 after this year’s typhoons prevented the government from completing a survey on salary and benefits for them, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad has said.

But Abad told the Senate finance committee looking into its P1.4 billion budget for 2015 on Tuesday, that in lieu of the salary increase, government workers would be given a performance enhancement incentive (PEI) that could be “as much as one-month pay and a minimum of P5,000 depending on how you perform as a public servant.”

Government employees do receive PEI but it has just been “P5,000 flat for all,” according to Abad.

Abad told Senate finance committee chair Francis Escudero that the one-month PEI would be equivalent to an eight percent increase in pay for public servants.

Abad disclosed the policy of no-salary-hike for government employees after Escudero asked why the DBM’s proposed budget for its Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund for next year of P118 million was a big jump from last year’s P53 million.

The budget secretary revealed they had allotted more money for the PEI after realizing that the government could not provide for a salary increase in 2015.

Abad said that the typhoons had prevented them from completing a survey that was needed as basis for considering another salary increase. And that was why in lieu of a salary increase, they would provide for a PEI instead.

“Since we don’t have a basis, what the President thought of is providing a one-month performance enhancement incentive, which used to be P5,000 for all,” he said.

Abad said that on top of the PEI, government workers would get a Performance Based Bonus and their 13^th-month pay.

In the end, Escudero approved the P1.4-billion budget of the Department of Budget and Management, saying that the proposed P2.606 trillion budget of next year was more “compliant” following the Supreme Court’s decision voiding the Disbursement Acceleration Program. Escudero said the budget proposal had measures to ensure that funds would be disbursed immediately.