MWSS officials, staff received 25 bonuses

(Updated 3:34 p.m.) The board of trustees, corporate and regulatory offices of water utility MWSS received P384 million in bonuses and allowances last year, documents released by the Senate committee on finance Tuesday showed. Officials and employees of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System received 25 bonuses over and above their regular monthly salaries, showing that abuse and indecent practices were committed in government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs), the committee said. "This indicates the kind of abuse that was being done, the kind of indecent practices that is being done in these agencies," Sen. Franklin Drilon, chair of the Senate finance committee, said. The water utility’s administrator and officer-in-charge, Macra Cruz, told the committee that those were the anniversary bonus, mid-year bonus, year-end financial assistance, productivity bonus, Collective Negotiation Agreement incentive, GOCC incentive, performance enhancement bonus, corporate Christmas package, traditional Christmas bonus, calamity assistance, educational assistance, scholarship allowance, and family-week allowance. There were other bonuses, said Cruz. The committee did not get the total amount such bonuses cost the MWSS. President Benigno Aquino III in his State of the Nation Address on July 26 said that MWSS officials received P211.5 million in salaries and additional allowances and benefits. Cruz herself received P4.3 million last year, including P98,000 a month – her regular salary – and other bonuses given in 2009. Oscar Garcia, head of the MWSS board, reportedly received P5,401,391 in bonuses in 2009 and P3,538,000 in 2008. Still, he told the committee that the amount included P450,000 in medical assistance and P60,000 a month in discretionary funds. Garcia made such money by sitting as chair of the MWSS board and without any executive function, Drilon explained. He said Garcia received P658,000 in per diem rates for attending board meetings in 2009, and that the MWSS board met 47 times out of 52 weeks last year. "There are only 52 weeks in a year. You met 47 times. Record shows you collected 47 per diems," Drilon told Garcia during the hearing. He said that there were two instances when the board met twice a day. Against executive order Those instances were against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's Executive Order No. 20, which limits GOCC officials’ to twice that of cabinet executives, Drilon said. Macra justified those bonuses, saying the MWSS was not covered by the order. The water utility had submitted its budget to the Department (DBM) and to the Office of the President, she said. The senator maintained that those were not grounds for the MWSS to exclude its officials from the rule. He sought an explanation as to why the water utility approved the bonuses when the state firm lost P3.53 billion in 2008. "What is the basis for the MWSS to provide bonuses when they are operating at a loss?" Senator Ralph Recto, head of the Senate committee on ways and means, asked. COA representative Jaime Naranjo said that the government auditor recently disallowed P156 million from the P242 million budget the MWSS was granted in 2009. "All of the benefits and allowances were disallowed in audit pending appeal," he said. Macra said they have submitted an appeal for the disallowances in the MWSS budget. Once the disallowance becomes final, MWSS officials and employees would be compelled to return some of the bonuses they received, Drilon said. In another interview after the hearing, Macra said she recommended that the 25 bonuses of MWSS officials and employees be reduced to seven to save about P179 million. Drilon said that the MWSS still owes the national government P258.6 million in dividends that were not yet transferred to the national coffers. Macra said that her office is prepared to remit half of that amount. Recto asked why it was not able to remit such an amount earlier when it was able to give its officials and employees such excessive bonuses. Macra said that the utility gave priority to the retirement claims of former MWSS employees.—VS, GMANews.TV