By Dolly Yasa
BACOLOD City – Mayor Evelio Leonardia said that for the first time since the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) institutionalized its reward program, the employees of the Bacolod City Government will receive their Performance-Based Bonus (PBB).
A press statement from the Bacolod Public Information said that the PBB is an incentive mechanism to reward local government employees for good governance and meritorious performance as a local government unit (LGU).
Leonardia said that it was “so inspiring for the City to be able to give this bonus to its employees for a job well done in 2019.”
He added that this is a measure of the effectiveness of the public service that their offices have rendered.
“Our officials and employees had worked hard in 2019, and it is so uplifting that their efforts are recognized and rewarded now.”
Under the memorandum circular issued by the DILG, employees belonging to “Best Performing Offices” shall receive a bonus equivalent to 0.65 of their gross monthly salary, while employees belonging to “Better Performing Offices” shall be given a bonus equivalent to 0.575 of their gross monthly salary, both as of December 31, 2019.
Based on the criteria of the DILG circular, the best performing offices in City Hall last year were the City Health Office, City Treasurer’s Office, City Assessors Office, and City Planning and Development Office.
In November 2019, after Bacolod City became one of the national awardees of the DILG for the 2019 Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG), the DILG informed Leonardia that Bacolod City shall be among the select LGUs eligible to grant the 2019 PBB to its employees but with pay-out to be made only in 2020.
Bacolod was one of only 57 out of 145 cities in the country, and one of the only three cities in Western Visayas to have received the SGLG award for 2019.
Also in December last year, Bacolod was hailed as the overall “Best Performing LGU – City Category in Western Visayas” at the awarding ceremony of the DILG 2019 Excellence in Local Governance Awards (EXCELL).
The SGLG criteria have seven governance core areas: Financial Administration; Disaster Preparedness; Social Protection; Peace and Order; Business Friendliness and Competitiveness; Environmental Protection; and Tourism, Culture and the Arts.
Leonardia said, “The SGLG is our guidance, recognition, reward, and inspiration. This also raises our standards in local governance and we now have that additional moral obligation to sustain and maintain our brand of local governance.”
With this go-signal from the DILG for the PBB grant to Bacolod City employees based on their 2019 performance, Leonardia then requested the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP), headed by Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, to pass an Appropriation Ordinance for the PBB, which was already provided for in the 2020 budget when the said budget was approved in December last year. (With a report from Bacolod PIO)