Members of the AO 25 Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on the Harmonization of National Government Performance, Monitoring, Information  and  Reporting  Systems  met  recently  to  assess  performance of departments, state universities and colleges (SUCs), other executive offices (OEOs), local  water  districts  (LWDs)  and  government-owned-or-controlled corporations (GOCCs) for the purpose of  determining  eligibility  for  the grant of the FY 2014 Performance-Based Bonus (PBB). The meeting was held last June 16 at the Bureau of the Treasury in Intramuros, Manila.

 Cabinet Secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras chaired the meeting that was attended by key officials from the Office of   the  President (OP), Department  of  Budget   and   Management (DBM), Department   of   Finance   (DOF), National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) and Presidential Management Staff (PMS)  who comprise the principal members of the AO 25 IATF.

 Sec. Almendras  warned  the  agencies  not  to  manipulate  the  forced  ranking  system by distributing evenly the PBB to employees as this disregards the main purpose of the program which is to reward performance.

 “It is our hope that it is used for the right purpose, not just to augment the income. It is unfair to those who perform. There are programs intended to be across the board but PBB is a performance enhancement program,” he said.

 The IATF also discussed the proposed guidelines for the grant of the FY 2015 PBB which was  disseminated last June. As in previous  PBB  cycles, several new requirements that agencies need to comply with are laid out under the FY 2015 PBB guidelines.

 The FY 2014 PBB cycle is now at the tail end of its implementation. As of this writing, 30 out of 190 agencies have been granted the FY 2014 PBB, 145 agencies were assessed as eligible and some are just awaiting clearances from DBM while 17 agencies have been disqualified for the grant of the FY 2014 PBB.

Also present during the meeting were officials from partner oversight agencies such as the Civil Service Commission (CSC), Commission  on  Higher  Education  (CHED), Office  of the Ombudsman (OMB), Commission on Audit (COA), Governance Commission for GOCCs (GCG), Career Executive Service Board (CESB), National Competitiveness Council (NCC), Local Water Utilities  Administration  (LWUA)  and  the  Development  Academy  of  the  Philippines  (DAP)  which serves as the AO 25 Secretariat and Technical Resource Institution. (AO 25 Secretariat)