PCSO stops release of disallowed bonuses

PCSO Chairman Jose Jorge Corpuz INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) has stopped disbursing to its executives and employees the bonuses and benefits disallowed by the Commission on Audit (COA).

“The present management of PCSO complied to suspend and stop immediately the releases or grant of these questioned benefits to its officials and employees in compliance with the directive of the Office of the President effective Sept. 1, 2017,” said PCSO Chair Jose Jorge Corpuz.

According to COA’s 2016 annual financial report covering government-owned or controlled corporations (GOCCs) dated Oct. 26, the PCSO is the No. 1 government firm with unlawful releases amounting to P518 million in additional compensation to GOCC employees.

COA said that of the total P535.17 million released by PCSO for allowances, bonuses and benefits in 2016, at least 93 percent were tagged as “remunerations without sufficient legal basis.”

Questioned benefits

In a joint statement, Corpuz and general manager Alexander Balutan explained that the questioned benefits “have been part and parcel of the monthly and yearly benefits of the PCSO officials and employees for more than 20 years.”

The benefits were duly covered by approvals from the previous Ramos, Estrada, Arroyo and Aquino administrations, they stressed.

“When we arrived at PCSO, the post facto approval was already there. The notice of disallowances issued by COA on government-owned or controlled corporations (GOCCs) has been in existence and consistent for the past years,” said Corpuz, adding:

“It seems (to be) an accepted practice already and allowed by law because of previous post facto approvals granted to PCSO.”

The two PCSO executives also noted that COA’s several notices of disallowances on the questioned benefits were “not yet final” because of a pending appeal filed with various regional offices of COA.

“But we have fixed it now. So, next year, there will be no more COA disallowances,” Corpuz said, citing as an example the PCSO employees’ 14th and 15th month pay.