EDUCATIONAL group Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) on Tuesday urged the Department of Budget (DBM) to retain the P10, 000 productivity enhancement incentive (PEI) for all government employees or raise it to P15, 000 instead of the P5, 000 PEI and performance-based bonus (PBB).

The group argued that until now, most of the employees from the Department of Education, especially the teachers are not aware on the amount of their bonus.

“We appreciate the generosity of the government for granting this bonus, however, we appeal that the P10, 000 PEI it granted since 2007 be retained or raised regardless of the amount of the PBB,” Benjo Basas, TDC national chairman, said in a statement.

“We further hope that said bonus will be given on time,” he added.

In previous years, Basas said that PEI is released to government employees before Christmas break.

“However, since the guidelines to determine the performance of agencies was only released by the inter-agency task force lead by DBM last November 12, the agencies would have a hard time to comply with the intricate requirements to determine the eligibility of agencies and employees to the performance-based bonus.” Basas added.

According to the Executive Order No. 80 of this year, which is also the basis of the IATF’s MC No.
2012-03, government officials and employees would be entitled to a PEI of about P5,000 and a performance-based bonus that varies depending on the performance of the agency and the individual employee.

TDC also warned that division and disparity in the field may occur due to these guidelines.

“For this particular year, we are not convinced that this performance-based bonus shall be implemented. It might cause disparity and would further divide the field. Everyone would be comparing his/her bonus to colleagues and perhaps would question the evaluation process.” Basas explained.

Basas clarified however that his group is not against giving incentives to performer and agrees that the non-performing employees or agencies should have less incentives.

“But we should be very careful in evaluating the performance of individuals and agencies. There should be a clear-cut policy and incontestable process. Our fear is that if we let the evaluation of performance to discretion of the unit head, objectivity might be questionable. Given the time left for the whole system to do it, then it might be prone to inconsistencies,” Basas said.