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GOVERNMENT departments have sitting undersecretaries and assistant
secretaries in excess of what is provided by law, jacking up the
bureaucracy’s personnel costs, the Civil Service Commission (CSC)
said Tuesday.
Karina Constantino-David, CSC chairperson told
members of the Makati Business Club that there are 60
undersecretaries and assistant secretaries “with invented
titles.”
“Government bureaus have the biggest expense
in the national budget, [for] which the people have little
appreciation,” Constantino-David said.
She said the Departments of Environment and
Natural Resources, of Agrarian Reform, of National Defense and of
Interior and Local Government have seven, eight, seven and six
excess undersecretaries and assistant secretaries, respectively.
“These agencies have topped in terms of having
more executives than what is needed,” Constantino-David said.
The bureaucratic system is controlled by the
“high and mighty” of politics, which has been prone to abuse by
presidential discretion, Constantino-David said, who is retiring 10
days from now.
As a chairperson of the CSC, she said that
career level employees of the government such as undersecretaries,
assistant secretaries and directors are the ones most vulnerable to
politics.
“High level positions in the government are
being controlled by padrinos or politicians,” she said.
Of the 6, 000 managerial positions in the
government, half were appointed by the president, which leads to a
“messy equation,” she said.
“Career level managers are always balancing
out, since their promotions rely heavily on those people on top,”
she added.
The president is allowed to appoint at least 10,
000 people for positions in the government.
The CSC chairperson is pushing for the career
executive service system bill, which would limit these appointments.
Under the bill, the president may still appoint undersecretaries but
will not be allowed to put people in certain positions without
having passed a series of tests.
-- Katrina Mennen A. Valdez
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