- MITCH M. LIPA
The Bacolod City government already released a substantial amount of bonuses to its employees since November, City Administrator, Atty. Joseph Edward Cuansing, said.
The performance-based bonus was released in the last week of November, and the basis for this was because Bacolod received the Seal of Good Local Governance from the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
Cuansing added that the bonus is based on the performance rating of an employee and the cash equivalent is between 57.5 percent to 65 percent of the monthly salary of regular and plantilla casuals.
The city also released the yearend bonus equivalent to a one-month salary, plus a cash gift of P5,000 each, also in November.
In the first week of December, the city released the Personnel Enhancement Incentive (PEI) of P5,000.
The latest bonus that the employees received was the Collective Negotiation Agreement incentive of P25,000 in maximum each, Cuansing said.
The city is now waiting for the circular from the Department of Budget and Management on the release of the Service Recognition Incentive.
Cuansing said that while waiting for the guidelines, the city government set aside more than P12 million, possibly for an additional P10,000 bonus for each employee. The SRI amount is the same as last year’s, and will be released after Dec. 15, depending on the DBM circular issuance.
Cuansing clarified that all bonuses of the city have no undertaking or waiver to the employees since Mayor Evelio Leonardia want to release a bonus that is fixed and definite, with strong basis. This is to avoid questions from the Commission on Audit, like what happened to other local government units the previous years, he said.
There were instances when the COA disallowed the amount of bonuses and the employees had to return the windfall. — MML
