Government on track with plan for central payment system

MANILA, Philippines - The Aquino administration is on track with its plan to implement a central payroll system within the next three to six years, National Treasurer Roberto Tan said in a recent interview.

He said that an interagency task force is already working on the design of the program including the IT infrastructure for the plan.

 “We’re in the stage of recruiting consultants and service providers. We’re trying to move faster,” said Tan who is in charge of the project.

The plan would be implemented in phases, he added.

Under the plan, the government would put under a single account in the treasury all the payroll of state workers.

The move is part of efforts to lessen bureaucratic corruption and to cut the red tape as is being practiced in other countries.

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad first announced the plan, dubbed as the Central Payroll System where salaries of government employees will no longer go through the agencies.

Instead, the national treasury office will deposit the salaries to the bank accounts of the employee.

Tan said one of the beneficiaries of the plan are government workers as it hopes to address the perennial problem of non-remittance of contributions of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), the state-owned pension fund for private employees.

At one point, the unpaid contributions of government agencies to GSIS reached P9 billion plus P15 billion in penalties.

Tan said the Treasury would start with the payroll of all government agencies first before doing the handling the payroll of government-owned and controlled corporations and government financial institutions.

In a joint administrative over issued on Jan. 6, 2012, the Departments of Finance and Budget and Management and the Commission on Audit has instructed all heads of departments, bureaus and offices of the national government including SUCs to report their bank accounts to the BTr.

The DBM, DOF and COA said the move is part of government efforts to facilitate the planning and management of the cash resources of the national government.

The Aquino administration has been implementing measures to save on costs and raise more revenues for the government.