MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Audit (COA) upheld earlier findings that the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) overpaid its executives and employees their performance-based bonuses (PBB) in 2014.

The 12-page decision of the COA en banc requires 2,168 DBP personnel to return the excess amounts totaling P175.85 million.

DBP officials who approved the amounts paid were ordered to refund the net disallowed amount after deducting the sum paid by the rank-and-file employees who were just passive recipients of the PBB.

According to state auditors, only P123.97 million in bonuses was valid as per the amounts set under a 2015 memo circular of the Governance Commission on GOCCs (GCG). GOCCs is the acronym for Government-Owned or -Controlled Corporations.

The amount disbursed, however, was equivalent to 141%, or P299.82 million.

The excess amounts identified in the March 21, 2023 re-computation are as follows:

• 63 DBP senior executives received P70.39 million, but only P17.15 million was allowed, resulting in an excess of P53.24 million;
• 556 junior officials received P120.59 million, but only P48.39 million was allowed, resulting in an excess of P72.21 million;
• 1,549 rank-and-file personnel received P108.84 million, but only P58.44 million was valid, resulting in an excess of P50.4 million

“The audit team disallowed the payment to DBP’s officials and employees of PBB …for being irregular and excessive,” the ruling read, signed by COA chairperson Gamaliel A. Cordoba and Commissioners Roland Café Pondoc and Mario Lipana.

“They were performing discretionary function because before approving the transactions, they are not precluded from raising reasonable questions on the funding, legality, regularity, necessity, or economy of the expenditure. The presumption of good faith fails when an explicit law, rule or regulation has been violated, as in this case,” it added. – Rappler.com

[OPINION] Understanding the performance management system in government