MWSS removes 'illegal' employee allowances

MANILA, Philippines - The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) said yesterday its board has removed employee allowances that the Commission on Audit (COA) said have no legal basis. 

“We had to comply with the COA findings. In doing so we have become the target of a smear campaign,” MWSS chair Ramon Alikpala said. “But we won’t stop cleaning house. Our reform efforts will continue.”

Alikpala said the COA found no legal basis for the P150 per day meal allowance for Employees, so the MWSS reduced this to P3, based on a decades-old order from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

An MWSS driver, for instance, used to receive P97,000 per month. This was reduced to P38,000 per month,  “which is still way above what his peers in other government agencies get,” he said.

All employees, including drivers, had car plans, part of the cost of which is subsidized by the MWSS. 

“We are putting a stop to the days of excess, and we are getting strong opposition from those who have become so used to them. We will persevere. We are doing what is right and as the old saying goes, right is might,” Alikpala said.

The MWSS Labor Association, in a statement, claimed that top officials of the agency are helping themselves to hefty financial benefits. The union said MWSS directors had fixed their per diem compensation at P14,500 and would schedule four meetings a day so that they could collect P58,000 in allowances for a day’s work. It also alleged that MWSS officials have budgets for ghost consultants.

Moreover, the employees also claimed that the board of trustees reduced  the workers’ meal allowances from P150 to P3 per day so that they can keep the excess.

Alikpala said the disgruntled employees have been spreading false information against MWSS officials in media “probably to get them replaced by others who will not be as uncompromising.”

“We set the example by removing the excessive allowances of the board members. Now, we even get less than what is allowed. But these employees claim the board meets several times a day to collect on our per diems. The truth is the board meets only twice a month,” he said.

The employees also claimed that management hired more than 400 consultants and paid them retroactively.

“We hired less than 30 and they are paid only for actual services. We also hired 162 foresters to take care of the Ipo Watershed with proper approvals from the (DBM), contrary to claims that the hirings were not authorized,” Alikpala said.