The Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) granted P7.28 million value of money incentives to its staff for excellence with out supporting paperwork, the Commission on Audit (COA) mentioned.
In its annual audit report on the company, COA mentioned the motivation, given underneath the Program on Awards and Incentives for Service Excellence (PRAISE), lacked supporting paperwork equivalent to detailed excellent/wonderful performances, recommendations, innovations and improvements of every of the recipients.
The money reward was additionally given regardless of the absence of proof that the contributions of the recipients generated financial savings and solely 20% thereof have been disbursed as required in Paragraph 6 of Civil Service Commission Memorandum Circular No. 1, s. 2001.
“The practice of granting incentives to all regular employees without considering their specific contributions is not aligned with the very nature and purpose of PRAISE Incentives and hence may be considered as irregular expenditure as defined in COA Circular No. 2012-03,” COA mentioned.
The incentive equal to a month’s fundamental wage was given to TPB staff on October 3, 2022 supposedly for PRAISE ISO Corporate Achievement Award.
They acquired one other incentive on October 19, 2022 for PRAISE Special Achievement Award pursuant to Resolution No. 2022-02, which amounted to P28,000 every.
In response to COA’s findings, TPB mentioned the PRAISE program is authorised by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and such program permits the grant of rewards, incentives and recognition to “Performance Type Contribution,” which includes “particular person, group or company efficiency.”
“The TPB ISO Quality Management is a collective effort and accomplishment of the officials and employees of the TPB. Moreover, the Destination of the Year Outstanding Achievement Award received by the TPB is an acknowledgment and recognition of all TPB officials and employees who have contributed to such achievement,” the agency said.
“The achievement of the TPB in maintaining its Quality Management System (QMS) results from the overall contribution of the officials and employees. It must be emphasized that the individual performance of the department and offices contributes to the organization’s overall performance based on its performance targets and objectives,” it added.
Further, the TPB said that it has generated savings from its overall performance in 2022 amounting to P131.5 million.
The TPB also said that the Governance Commission for Government-Owned and/or Controlled Corporations has a performance based bonus reward system. PRAISE, meanwhile, is sanctioned by the CSC.
“Both reward techniques have totally different implementation tips and are regulated by totally different authorities businesses,” the TPB added.
COA, nonetheless, mentioned that the TPB has not submitted the detailed excellent/wonderful performances, recommendations, innovations, and improvements of every recipient.
“The grant of one-month basic pay to all regular employees due to ISO certification and an additional P28,000 across the board for an award received by the TPB without due consideration of their respective performance or degree and extent of their contributions is no longer consistent with the purpose of a PRAISE program,” state auditors mentioned.
“Moreover, if the TPB is banking its premise that they distributed the subject PRAISE incentives to all regular employees on the notion that everybody contributed to achieving the targets set by various oversight committees… then there is already a PBB (performance based bonus) granted to all regular employees in recognition of their efforts and contributions in the attainment of the targets and commitments. Hence, giving another monetary incentive to all officers and employees of the TPB is already questionable,” COA added.
The TPB, nonetheless, maintained its actions have been above board.—LDF, GMA Integrated News
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
