Airlines seek Customs overtime padding probe

MANILA, Philippines - The airline industry is willing to cooperate with the Ombudsman in investigating a complaint filed by airport Customs examiners against their immediate superiors for allegedly padding their overtime claims with airline companies, and pocketing, instead of distributing properly, the money collected.

Bayani Agabin, spokesman for the Board of Airline Representatives (BAR), said yesterday the complaint supports “our longstanding suspicion of overcharging and abuse of this overtime arrangement. We are thankful that the present administration has decided to do away with the backward practice of a single shift from 8 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon plus overtime, and instead operate 24/7 on three shifts at key ports as is done worldwide.”

The airlines had paid airport Customs roughly P2 billion since the early 1990s until 2005, when they decided to stop paying after airport Customs wanted to double their charges.

The airlines then challenged the overtime practice in court, arguing that Customs employees are government employees, not theirs. There are about 200 Customs employees at the airport.

The complaint before the Ombudsman was filed in August 2009 by some examiners who did not get their share.

Agabin said the resolution of this case would resonate across the bureaucracy and send a strong message to erring civil servants.

Agabin also said the Ombudsman should find out if the check payments from individual airlines were deposited in government accounts, properly accounted for and distributed, and whether the recipients declared these as part of their taxable compensation income.

“If they encashed the checks and divided it among themselves, then this constitutes malversation which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment,” he said. “This may also amount to a violation of Civil Service Commission rules on double compensation, Commission on Audit rules on accounting and disbursement of funds, and tax laws on payment of taxes on income.”

According to the complaint, Customs collectors prepare two sets of payroll.

The one submitted to the airlines shows the complete list of examiners even if some are actually absent, on leave or had been transferred, while the other is the “final payroll” where those actually absent were taken off the list and their share is allegedly pocketed by the superiors, the complaint said.

The airport Customs personnel also abused this overtime practice by adding meals and transportation allowances to their billings, and charging four times if four planes land for the same hour they serve, he said.