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Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Government workers want say on plan to trim bureaucracy
By Charmaine Y. Rodriguez
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
GOVERNMENT employees want to incorporate their recommendations in the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the rationalization program, which could force some 50,000 of them out of public service or to retirement.
In yesterday’s Visayas-wide public sector conference organized by the Confederation of Independent Unions in the Public Sector (CIU), Akbayan Rep. Mario Aguja said the National Government is willing to invest P14 billion for the rationalization program since it expects to get P7 billion in savings by 2006.
They are anticipating the release of the IRR to correct the redundancy or duplication of government offices before March next year, when President Arroyo is expected to push for the approval of the 2005 budget.
Aguja said with government’s failure to keep Congress, government employees and the public apprised of the details of the proposed program, which is stated in Arroyo’s Executive Order (EO) 366, they hope there will be consultations on the IRR.
Secret
“Why is the executive branch of government making this a divine secret? I hope it will not be the Christmas gift of the President to government employees,” he told participants to yesterday’s gathering, the third of the series of consultations they have conducted nationwide.
Aguja and other Akbayan Reps. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel and Etta Rosales already filed a resolution so Congress, through the committees on government reorganization and civil service and professional regulation, could conduct an inquiry on the specific mechanics and rationale of the proposed rationalization plan.
The inquiry will include representatives of the Civil Service Commission (CSC), Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and other concerned government agencies.
Clotilde Draperte, DBM organization and productivity improvement bureau chief, assured participants that they are open for suggestions although she already discussed in detail E0 366, including its implementation and the government’s impact mitigation measures.
All departments
The EO covers all departments of the executive branch, their component bureaus, including corporations, boards, task forces, councils, commissions and all other attached agencies.
Constitutional offices, legislature, judiciary, state universities and colleges and local government units may, on a voluntary basis, apply the new system.
Department secretaries are expected to create change management teams to handle the transformation of the bureaucracy into an effective and efficient institution.
Affected employees, who would opt to remain in government service, may be placed in other agencies identified by CSC to be in need of additional personnel.
Draperte said they will release a list and identified some of these frontline offices as the Land Transportation Office, National Statistics Office, Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, education and health institutions.
Those who would opt to retire are assured of getting retirement premiums and separation benefits as provided under existing laws.
The EO directed the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) to speed up the reconciliation of all its members’ records and to ensure the release of the benefits on the day of retirement or separation.
However, Danilo Ricaflanca, CIU general secretary, said that most of them are “too young to retire and, in five years, will be too old to be hired.”
Scapegoat
“The government is making us a scapegoat of its inefficiency,” he said, adding it should instead look into corruption problems.
Miguel Maga, national president of the Philippine Federation of Government-Owned and -Controlled Corporations Employees’ Union, related their experience with the privatization of the Home Mortgage Finance Corp.
The privatization would mean an end to the community mortgage program, which assures the urban poor of housing services at six percent interest.
They have already questioned in court the legality of the EO, which he said assails the government’s inherent function to provide services to the government.
They believe the Arroyo administration is following the dictates of multilateral funding organizations to allow international companies to take part in the bidding of basic services, which may be privatized.
(December 15, 2004 issue)
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