MANILA -- School-based personnel of the Department of Education (DepEd) would receive their Performance-Based Bonus (PBB) for fiscal year 2016 before the month ends, an official of the department said.
DepEd Undersecretary for Planning and Field Operations Jesus Mateo, in a report to the Committee on Basic Education and Culture of the House of Representatives, said some school personnel would receive the bonus within the week, and others by the end of the month.
“Lilinawin ko na ang polisiya natin dito ay inuuna natin ang mga paaralan bago ang mga opisina. Lahat ng eskwelahan dapat matingnan natin na meron bago sa field, huli ang Central (Let me just clarify that the policy here is to prioritize the schools first, before the offices. We must make sure that all schools already have the bonus, before the field, then the Central last)," Mateo said.
Teachers in Ilocos, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Bicol, Western and Central Visayas have already received their PBB on Monday (March 5).
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Organization, Position Classification, and Compensation Bureau (OPCCB) is already evaluating the submissions of Regions VIII, IX, X, Cordillera Administrative Region, and CARAGA, and awaiting the submission of Regions IV-B, VI, VII, and the now-defunct Negros Island Region.
Difficulty in meeting requirements
Mateo admitted that the department has encountered challenges in the requirements for the grant of the 2016 PBB. He said some of these were addressed while they were completing the PBB requirements for FY 2017.
Some of the factors that affected their compliance were the National Achievement Test (NAT) results and drop-out rates, he said.
“Sa obserbasyon na ang NAT [National Achievement Test] at drop-out rate ay kasama sa performance, sa unang cycle yun ng PBB at tinanggal natin yan dahil sa maraming feedback na galing sa mga paaralan. Kung tutuusin, in-exempt po ang mga paaralan dun sa tinatawag na individual forced ranking. Tayo lang ang katangi-tanging ahensya na walang forced ranking sa school dahil saliwa ito sa school-based management (In the observation, NAT and drop-out rate are included in the performance in the first PBB cycle, and we removed that due to feedback from schools. In fact, schools were exempted from individual forced ranking. We are the only agency that has no forced ranking in schools since this is contradictory to school-based management)," Mateo said.
Although the department was able to meet all the criteria for the PBB, it had issues meeting pre-conditions on the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System, the budget utilization rate, and specific Physical Accomplishments.
The department submitted the documents for approval by the Department of Budget and Management only in the last quarter of 2017 after solving the issues with the help of delivery units within their governance levels, Mateo said.
“Pebrero po nang binigyan tayo ng report ng Inter-Agency Task Force. Nung March ay sinagot natin ito at ginawa tayong compliant. Ang hindi lang natin na-comply ay sa usapin na ng major final output (MFO) accomplishment. Bago kasi magkaroon ka ng ranking sa bawat opisina kailangan i-declare muna ng IATF ang buong kagawaran, isipin niyo na lang na ang Kagawaran natin ay napakalaki. Pinaliwanag natin na di natin ma-comply yung ibang targets (NAT and A&E) kasi kailangan makuha yung result nito kasi kung hindi, hindi natin masasabi yung mga target natin. Ang dahilan bakit na-delay ang administration nito ay dahil sa several failure of bidding (The Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) gave us the report just this February. By March, we've replied to this and we were declared compliant. We weren't able to comply with the major final output accomplishment. The IATF has to declare the whole department before we're able to rank the offices. Think about it, our department is very big)," Mateo said.
"We also explained that we are not able to comply with the other targets (NAT and A&E) because we need to get their results first, we cannot say that those are our targets. The reason is, why the administration of both were delayed, this is because of several failures of bidding,” he added.
The department is proposing to adopt a framework or ordering agreement to mitigate the delays and improve their compliance since procurement issues played a major role in the delay in the grant of their 2016 PBB.
“Ibig sabihin, hindi kada administration ng test natin ay magpro-procure. Magpro-procure na tayo ng isang provider for assessment at sasabihin na lang natin kung kailan ito ia-administer para hindi na paulit ulit yung bidding (This means, not every administration of our tests we would procure. We will procure one provider for assessment and they will just inform us when this will be administered to avoid repetition of bidding)," Mateo said.
To ensure the speedy compliance of the department's delivery units, the DepEd will conduct an orientation on the PBB 2017 submission this coming summer.
Earlier, the DBM said the release of the 2016 PBB of some departments has encountered several delays owing to late or incomplete submission of requirements for the compliance validation process by the oversight agencies concerned to determine an agency’s eligibility for the grant of the PBB.
It said it received the final validation by the Administrative Order No. 25 of IATF on whether or not DepEd is eligible for the PBB, only on January 17, 2018. (PNA)
