Government employees advised: Go slow in spending extra bonuses

ANGELES CITY — Employees of government agencies, local government units (LGUs), government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) or state universities and colleges should better go slow in spending the hefty Christmas bonuses they have received or are about to receive. They may end up refunding such "extra" bonuses.

Officials of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) issued this warning after President Arroyo, for the first time in Christmas bonus history, has allowed the use of government savings to augment the usual bonus equivalent to one-month pay and P5,000 cash gift given to government employees.

Unknown to many, the DBM issued last Nov. 12 Budget Circular No. 2001-02 which allows national government agencies, GOCCs, state universities and colleges, government financial institutions and LGUs to use their savings for the extra Christmas bonus for their employees.

"As far as I know, this is the first time that Malacañang did not issue a prohibition in the use of savings for Christmas bonuses," said Lea Nuñez, staff officer of DBM Undersecretary Mario Relampagos.

Leonila Dimafelix, of the DBM’s Central Luzon office, said the bonus from savings is apart from the mandatory "13th month" pay plus P5,000 cash gift that employees of government and other related agencies are supposed to get for Christmas.

Second circular

Both Nuñez and Dimafelix, however, warned that the DBM circular was supplemented by Budget Circular No. 2001-02A to "ensure equity in the grant of the subject benefit to all employees of the department."

"For example, savings of all agencies under the Department of Justice must be pooled and used as basis for computing the equal amount of bonus that each employee under the entire department, including its attached agencies, are supposed to get," Nuñez said.

According to the supplemental circular, "the department head concerned shall be held personally liable for any payment of benefit not in accordance with the provisions of Budget Circular No. 2001-02 and this circular, without prejudice, however, to the refund thereof by the employee concerned."

In the Department of Labor and Employment’s office in Central Luzon, regional director Ana Dione said their attached agencies, such as the Technology Livelihood Resource Center (TLRC), has already issued an extra bonus of about P5,000 to each of their employees although there is yet no assurance of the source of such a bonus for DOLE’s regional personnel.

"In such cases, those who received their extra bonus in the attached agencies could be asked to refund if the computation of the pooled savings of DOLE and its attached agencies turns out to be lesser than P5,000," Dimafelix said.

Excess savings

The DBM circulars define savings as "portions or balances of the agency’s budget, free of any obligation or encumbrance and which are no longer intended for specific purpose or purposes."

The supplemental circular authorizes department heads to "transfer excess allotment savings of bureaus/offices to bureaus/offices with deficient allotment savings in accordance with existing budget and accounting rules and regulations, to ensure equity in the grant of the subject benefit to all employees of the department."

It adds that the grant of an extra Christmas bonus by LGUs shall be subject to the 45 to 55 percent personal services limitation set under Section 325 of the Local Government Code of 1991.

Nuñez, however, said that most savings of government agencies are not in cash but in mere allotments.

"This means that the extra bonus of some employees may not come in cash, but a virtual promise that they would be entitled to such a bonus, probably to be released next year," she said.

She, however, said that employees of income-generating agencies such as the Social Security System and the Government Service Insurance System will likely have a bigger extra Christmas bonus — in cash. — Ding Cervantes