Gov’t employees to get P5,000 productivity pay next week

MANILA, Philippines - Starting on Monday, government employees will be receiving a one-time P5,000 bonus for the year to reward and motivate them to be more productive, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad announced yesterday.

Abad clarified this is on top of the year-end bonus equivalent to a month’s pay and the additional P5,000 cash gift recently provided by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) across-the-board.

“We hope to motivate them further to increase their efficiency and overall performance as we collectively continue pursuing our socio-economic development goals,” Abad said.

According to records of the DBM as of Oct. 31, about 1.4 million national government employees will be granted the Productivity Enhancement Incentive (PEI) of a maximum of P5,000, totaling around P7 billion.

Under Budget Circular 2014-3, the PEI will be granted to government employees occupying regular, contractual or casual positions; who are in active service as of Oct. 31; and have rendered at least a total or an aggregate of four months of service for the year.

Employees who have rendered less than four months will be entitled to pro-rated PEI.

While the PEI of national government agencies will be sourced from the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund under the 2014 budget, the PEI for employees of government-owned and -controlled corporations and government financial institutions will be charged against their respective approved corporate operating budgets for the year.

Abad also said employees of local government units were eligible to receive the PEI to be charged against the available funds of their respective LGUs and at rates to be determined by their respective local councils.

This discretion, Abad noted, would be subject to the Personnel Services limitation in LGU budgets under the Local Government Code, the same guidelines on the eligibility of employees from the Executive branch, and provided that the council would determine reasonable amounts and would not in any way adversely affect the delivery of services to their respective communities.  –  With Zinnia Dela Peña