Government top violator of ‘endo’ scheme – Diokno

MANILA, Philippines – The government is the No.1 violator of President Duterte’s promise to eradicate “endo” and a bill that aims to “resize” the bureaucracy will address that, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said yesterday.

“We have already filed a rightsizing bill before the two houses of Congress,” Diokno said in a speech before the Makati Business Club.

In a question-and-answer portion that followed, he explained there is a need to tackle the government’s growing 1.26-million-strong workforce, more than a tenth of which were hired in a non-permanent basis.

“There are a lot of endos in the government. All these things will be addressed in the bill,” Diokno said.

As part of his campaign promise, Duterte vowed to end the practice of “endo”, shortened for “end of contract,” which technically means a worker no longer working for a firm after six months.

While this is consistent with the law, some employers have abused this through what is now known as “555” where companies fire employees before reaching six months to avoid hiring them permanently and giving them benefits.

In the government, a total of 131,193 positions are filled with casual, contractual or elective posts as of 2010, accounting for 10.4 percent of the total, latest Civil Service Commission (CSC) data showed.

This covers those working in the national and local government units (LGUs), local water districts, state universities and colleges as well as government-owned and -controlled corporations.

Under Senate Bill 1167 or the Rightsizing the National Government bill, the President will be given powers to abolish or merge state agencies or to transfer their functions as the need arises.

Such moves will be undertaken should the Chief Executive sees agencies that have “duplicating or overlapping” functions that otherwise, could be merged.

“For instance, one of the possibilities I am thinking of is we create a separate department of housing. That’s one possibility,” Diokno said, citing an example.

“Or we can divide the DILG (Department of Interior and Local Government) into two, one for LGUs and one for local defense. Those are possibilities,” he said.

A rightsizing committee will also be organized under the bill. This will be co-chaired by the Executive Secretary and the budget chief.

Leaders of the National Economic and Development Authority, Presidential Management Staff and the CSC chair will act as members.

Among others, the committee is tasked to produce a rightsizing framework and plan for the President’s approval and to monitor its implementation on each agency.

The plan should include retirement benefits and separation incentives to be offered to those who will be affected by the re-organization. No estimates as to how many workers will be affected were provided.

“It’s not only about just removing people. It’s also about getting the right skills. We will ensure that as we do this, efficiency of government operations will be prioritized,” Diokno said.