Iloilo City gov’t execs, employees may be asked to return bonuses

ILOILO CITY—Nearly 1,700 officials and employees of the Iloilo City government may each be required to return P15,000 of bonuses disallowed by the Commission on Audit (COA).

In 16 separate notices dated Sept. 1, the COA in Western Visayas disallowed P15,000 of the P20,000 given to each of the officials and employees as their Productivity Enhancement Incentive (PEI) for 2014.

The disallowed bonuses totaled P24,324,000 of the total PEI amounting to P32,432,000.

On Dec. 9, 2014, the city council passed an ordinance appropriating P32,860,000 to cover the PEIs for the employees at P20,000 each.

Those who received the bonuses included Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog, Vice Mayor Jose Espinosa III, 13 city councilors and other officials and employees.

But the COA said this was contrary to Section 1(a) of Executive Order No. 80 dated July 20, 2012, which provides that the PEI amounting to P5,000 “shall continually be granted across-the-board in accordance with the guidelines to be issued by the (Department of Budget and Management.)”

Directed to settle

The COA report directed all the employees to settle the disallowed amount within six months before the notice becomes final and executory.

The notices were issued by Maricel Alojado, audit team leader, and Yvonne Zorn, supervising auditor.

The city government can still appeal the notices and question them before courts.

Last year, the COA also affirmed its order disallowing yearend bonuses to employees of the Iloilo provincial government totaling P103 million granted in 2009.