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WITH the
bureaucracy bloated with noneligible political
appointees and about 90 former police and military
officials filling up key government positions, the
country has reached the “height of the politization of
the bureaucracy” under the current administration.
This is
according to the chairman of the Civil Service
Commission (CSC), herself, Karina Constantino David.
“In
terms of political appointees, there are far more under
this administration. And with the rate things are going,
I think there will be no letting up,” David told
reporters after speaking at the Makati Business Club (MBC)
forum at the Hotel Intercontinental in
Makati.
David,
whose seven-year term will end next week, said the
1.4-million-strong bureaucracy could not function well
because the positions on top—starting with assistant
provincial directors up—have been made part of political
bartering.
This,
she said, is making the government personnel unable to
move decisively because they are either too afraid of
stepping on somebody else’s toes or are waiting for the
higher-ups to make the signal.
As a
result, David said even business is affected because
this drags the private sector’s transactions with the
government.
David
said this is saddening considering the country is
spending about one-third of its annual appropriations as
compensation for government personnel. Because of the
politization of the bureaucracy, David said more than
half of 3,000 managerial positions such as assistant
secretaries, undersecretaries and secretaries do not
have the seal of eligibility, which means they did not
pass the required battery of test.
On the
contrary, more than 4,000 eligible career officials in
the government are just waiting to be appointed to these
posts.
Compounding this, she said, is the appointment of
retired police and military officials, even if they are
not really qualified, to key posts like in the
Department of Transportation and Communications, Bureau
of Immigration and Deportation and even the
Mindanao
State University.
Also,
David said several agencies have an overload of
assistant secretaries (Assecs) and undersecretaries (Usecs),
further draining the government coffers.
For
example, David said the Department of Agrarian Reform
has eight more Assecs and Usecs than what is required by
law; the Department of Environment and Natural Resources
has seven in excess, and the DILG has six more.
“This is
why in the DBM’s (Department of Budget and Management)
memo book, you will find a list of very inventive
titles,” David said.
She
described the current administration as the most brazen
in displaying its political appointments.
In the
previous administrations, David said the desire letters
for the political appointments were being passed on
covertly.
Today,
David said, these desire letters are being waved around,
“and there are desire letters for every single
department.” |
