COA: NLDC execs got 'too much' in bonuses for 2010

MANILA, Philippines - Officials and employees of the National Livelihood Development Corp. (NLDC) received too much in productivity enhancement incentive (PEI) bonuses last year, the Commission on Audit (COA) said.

State auditors said the P760,000 in cash gifts to executives and personnel of the state-owned firm violated Administrative Order 3 issued by President Aquino in November 2010.

They noted that despite receiving additional yearend benefits in excess of those authorized by the law, NLDC officials and employees got more last year.

Administrative Order 3 states that in order to be granted the PEI, employees should not have received any additional yearend benefit in 2010 over and above the Christmas bonuses authorized under Republic Act 6686.

Records show that the NLDC board of trustees did not submit documents to the COA to show that the grant of the additional personnel benefits was backed by board resolutions. The COA said that the NLDC president, in a June 15, 2010 letter, asked then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo “for the confirmation of the NLDC Personnel Benefit Package that includes personnel benefit increases in anniversary cash gift, Christmas gift package and medical assistance, which was signed as ‘confirmed’ by then President Arroyo.”

State auditors stressed that the agency’s officers and employees – including contractual personnel – are clearly no longer allowed to receive the PEI considering that they have already received several other personnel benefits aside from the 13th month pay and cash gift.

The NLDC is a government-owned and controlled corporation mandated to “undertake the promotion, generation and development of livelihood and community-based enterprises primarily in agri-business, including those in the agrarian reform communities that will cater to the low-income bracket,” according to the COA.