COA questions tourism board's P7.2-million incentive to staff

The Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) granted P7.28 million worth of cash incentives to its employees for excellence without supporting documents, the Commission on Audit (COA) said.

In its annual audit report on the agency, COA said the incentive, given under the Program on Awards and Incentives for Service Excellence (PRAISE), lacked supporting documents such as detailed outstanding/excellent performances, suggestions, inventions and innovations of each of the recipients.

The cash gift was also given despite the absence of proof that the contributions of the recipients generated savings and only 20% thereof were disbursed as required in Paragraph 6 of Civil Service Commission Memorandum Circular No. 1, s. 2001.

“The practice of granting incentives to all regular employees without  considering their specific contributions is not aligned with the very nature  and purpose of PRAISE Incentives and hence may be considered as irregular expenditure as defined in COA Circular No. 2012-03,” COA said.

The incentive equivalent to a month's basic salary was given to TPB employees on October 3, 2022 supposedly for PRAISE ISO Corporate Achievement Award.

They received another incentive on October 19, 2022 for PRAISE Special Achievement  Award pursuant to Resolution No. 2022-02, which amounted to P28,000 each.

In response to COA’s findings, TPB said the PRAISE program is approved by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and such program allows the grant of rewards, incentives and recognition to “Performance Type Contribution," which includes "individual, group or corporate performance."

“The TPB ISO Quality Management is a collective effort and accomplishment of the officials and employees of the TPB. Moreover, the Destination of the Year Outstanding Achievement Award received by the TPB is an  acknowledgment and recognition of all TPB officials and employees who have contributed to such achievement,” the agency said.

“The achievement of the TPB in maintaining its Quality Management System (QMS) results from the overall contribution of the officials and employees. It must be emphasized that the individual performance of the department and offices contributes to the organization’s overall performance based on its performance targets and objectives,” it added.

Further, the TPB said that it has generated savings from its overall performance in 2022 amounting to P131.5 million.

The TPB also said that the Governance Commission for Government-Owned and/or Controlled Corporations has a performance based bonus reward  system.  PRAISE, meanwhile, is sanctioned by the CSC.

"Both reward systems have different implementation guidelines and are regulated by different government agencies,” the TPB added.

COA, however, said that the TPB has not submitted the detailed outstanding/excellent performances, suggestions, inventions, and innovations of each recipient.

“The grant of one-month basic pay to all regular employees due to ISO certification and an additional P28,000 across the board for an award received by the TPB without due consideration of their respective performance or degree and extent of their contributions is no longer consistent with the purpose of a PRAISE program,” state auditors said.

“Moreover, if the TPB is banking its premise that they distributed the subject PRAISE incentives to all regular employees on the notion that everybody contributed to achieving the targets set by various oversight committees... then there is already a PBB (performance based bonus) granted to all regular employees in recognition of their efforts and contributions in the attainment of the targets and commitments. Hence, giving another monetary incentive to all officers and employees of the TPB is already questionable,” COA added.

The TPB, however, maintained its actions were above board.—LDF, GMA Integrated News