Teves wants list of BIR, BOC non -performers

Finance Secretary Margarito Teves has given the heads of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) until Sept. 30 to finalize the list of officials from the two agencies who would be penalized under the Lateral Attrition Law.

BIR Deputy Commissioner Nelson Aspe and BOC Commissioner Napoleon Morales, in response, said they are now working on finalizing the list of revenue officials who would be covered by the law.

The list will be submitted to the Revenue Performance Evaluation Board of the Department of Finance (DOF) which makes the final recommendations on who would be covered by the law.

Teves recognized the need to strengthen the implementation of the law after a House of Representatives’ committee noted lapses with the government’s enforcement of the measure.

The Lateral Attrition Law provides for a system of reward and punishment for BOC and BIR officials and employees depending on their performance. Those who fall short of their collection targets by at least 7.5 percent would be dismissed from service while those who go beyond expectations would be given incentives which may include cash.

According to the House of Representatives’ committee on oversight assessment report on government performance in the fourth year of the Arroyo presidency entitled “Staying the Course,” the government’s implementation of the Lateral Attrition Act of 2005 has been weak.

“Recommendations to the Revenue Performance Evaluation Board (RPEB) on the sanctions to be given to the officers of the BIR and BOC who failed to meet their targets by 7.5 percent came at a sluggish pace, despite the amount of time given for such officers to justify their shortfall to the RPEB,” the committee report has said.

The committee thus urged the BIR and BOC commissioners, as well as their respective officers, to fully implement the law “instead of looking for loopholes to circumvent the penalties provided therein.”

In the report, the committee stressed that the 7.5 percent threshold and the penalties for falling below that threshold could be an effective tool if properly implemented.

It said that the threshold provides a more effective and quantifiable method of penalizing inefficient, and possible corrupt, revenue officials.

“The rewards and incentives provided by the Attrition Act should also serve as an encouragement for the said officials to achieve or even exceed their goals for the given year, which has been the intention of the law from the beginning,” the committee said in its report.

The two agencies are under heavy pressure to meet revenue targets. The BOC is tasked to collect P254 billion this year while the BIR is tasked to generate P845 billion.