EVERY time I talk to my colleagues and work peers, I always stress the obvious.
And this applies as well to all, yes, ALL, government employees.
Those in government always have targets to meet, either quarterly or yearly. Failure to meet the target means failure to accomplish the program for the year.
Meaning, if you have 1 billion-peso budget for various programs and projects, that 1 billion must all be spent at the end of the working day of December. This is so because national budgeting is now cash-based budgeting.
If you cannot spend the budget, that is called under-spending. Bad news definitely, because there is something wrong in your absorptive capacity.
Since you cannot spend the 1 billion, the next year’s budget would not be higher than 1 billion.
* * *
Spending all that is in the budget is easier said than done.
There are systemic chokepoints along the way, and one of this is the terminal delay in the processing of documents.
Unless all the documents are signed by the signatories, the process is not complete. When one considers the physical act of signing by signatories, who are situated in different provinces, spaced between islands divided by seas, then one understands the long delay in the processing of documents.
It will take weeks before the documents arrive from another province, and more weeks before another signatory gets his turn. It would be months and more months before all the signatories get to sign the documents.
The delay is aggravated when some documents are lost or detached along the way, or the attachments are not complete.
It would be another circuitous route back, and the process starts from the beginning.
* * *
That is just on the processing of documents.
Another headache is the difficulty of getting the signatures. When the governor is not friendly with the vice governor (who controls the sanggunian), then getting the signature of the governor becomes uncertain.
Why, because he needs the go-signal by way of an enabling resolution from the sanggunian, authorizing him to sign in behalf of the province. Without such resolution, no way can the Governor sign a MOA.
This is the usual problem nowadays when the governor and vice governor, and the mayor and vice mayor, belong to different political parties or when they cannot move on from their respective political biases.
Pirmi gyod gubot.
So even when a project is already programmed for a particular province or municipality, no such project will be realized because of this particular systemic headache.
* * *
So during quarterly meetings, the regions are placed on notice that their targets should be met, or else.
This is big headache for career officials. The “or else” warning is simple but its ramification is clear and very problematic.
This means that either the head official will be transferred or demoted or whatever hits the fancy of the “bigwig” in the national office when the target is not met on the next quarter.
To arrest the deficiency, resort to shortcuts is done, all for the purpose of meeting the target. Yes, it’s always the target that matters.
So what happens?
Well, the target is met on the next quarterly meeting, so those in the central office are happy.
But all those in the region are not because they knew that they have committed shortcuts and it would be a matter of time when the COA gets wind of the shortcut.
When it does, and the COA demands an explanation from the concerned office, then the problem starts.
Sleepless nights begin, the fear of being terminated or suspended starts to creep inside the mental cabinet and the unfortunate baptismal of being a crook or corrupt or being incompetent starts to become a reality.
More so when the COA issues a notice of disallowance (ND), because the explanation was not satisfactory.
When it does, then it is just a matter of time that a case will be filed before the Ombudsman.
At this point, the officials concerned will be awakened to a sad reality.
Regardless of your effort to meet the target, to please everyone especially those in the central office, it really does not pay to do shortcuts because there is always a paper trail.
As they say, mat-an pas pinya ang taga-COA.
* * *
When a case is eventually filed and the officials are made to explain, then they begin to realize that from that day on, they are each on his own.
Kanya-kanyang depensa kay way modupa sa imong kaso, ikaw ra.
You spend for your lawyer using your own money, yes, you spend everything, and bear the physical, emotional and social burden, all by your lonesome self, and there is nobody from the central office who will help, because that is the sad reality of being in government service.
So this is always my message to my peers/colleagues in government – it does not pay to play the pa-hero-hero part, especially when it involves taking shortcuts.
Kay kon kasohan na ka, kwits tanan imong retirement and other benefits, kwits tanan imong paningkamot for better future, kwits tanan imong tinigom, hasta imong dungog and to think that you spent the best years of your lives in government service.
