COA Report on the PNA reveals discrepancies with the 2017 GAA
About the repeated mishaps at the Philippines News Agency (PNA), now is the time for Secretary Martin Andanar and Undersecretary Joel Egco of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) to investigate.
I urge them to file appropriate administrative and disciplinary cases.
Let due process run its course. The mishaps at the PNA have now reached the level of several too many. It is now time for some order amid the chaos.
Our understanding is Undersecretary Joel Egco now has the unenviable task of cleaning up the PNA. Given what we have seen ever since late 2016, he has a lot of house cleaning to do.
Sec. Andanar and Usec. Egco clearly need to enforce discipline and professionalism at the PNA. They should apply the civil service rules on administrative cases. Have administrative cases been filed?
It is reasonable to conclude that such administrative cases would have charges ranging from simple neglect of duty to gross neglect of duty, to dishonesty. The penalties for these vary from suspension of at least one month to the maximum of dismissal.
The 2017 GAA and the 2016 COA report
Searching for the PNA in the 2017 General Appropriations Act is not an easy task, unless you know where to look.
The PNA is not even mentioned by name in the GAA because it is a part of a little-known agency called the News and Information Bureau or NIB.
This year, NIB has a budget of P124.765 million. For 2018, the administration is asking for a P129.125 million budget for the NIB, including the PNA.
According to the proposed 2018 GAA, NIB has 266 authorized positions and 169 filled positions.
According to the latest Commission on Audit (COA) report on the NIB, the NIB is headed by Director Virginia R. Arcilla-Agtay. The COA report says she is there in an acting capacity.
The COA report further says the PNA is a division of the NIB.
The state news agency of the entire Philippine Government is a mere division in the entire bureaucracy.
The COA report also says the PNA has 99 permanent positions filled and 30 job orders (contractual employees) for a total of 129 civil servants.
The 2016 COA report says NIB has 81 job orders in total. That includes the 30 job orders at PNA. We note that in the 2017 GAA for the NIB, the job orders are not counted in the staffing summary.
I want to know as committee chair: Who are the PCOO editors, reporters, IT personnel and PNA bureau personnel who hold plantilla positions and who are mere job orders?
The COA report says the NIB has 241 authorized plantilla positions but the GAA says the NIB has 266 authorized positions.
Which is which? There is a difference of 15 plantilla positions.
I also take this opportunity to ask Sec. Andanar and Usec. Egco to count and list all the job orders there in the PNA, NIB, and all of the PCOO.
