MANILA, Philippines – Pay day for government employees could soon be a walk in the park. 

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) announced on Tuesday, July 30, that it will implement a new National Payroll System (NPS) to distribute salaries via Automated Teller Machines. 

According to Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, the move “will play a central role in ensuring greater efficiency, transparency, and accountability in the government’s human resource processes.”

This will replace the current manual process of doling out salaries and withholding fees which Abad described as an “outdated and grossly inefficient approach to personnel compensation.”

Abad added the NPS will pave the way for quicker and more accurate payroll-related activities since the system will be fully electronic.  

Select agencies are scheduled to pilot-test the system at the end of the year.

Policy improvement

Switching to an electronic payroll is not a new concept.

“It’s par for the course in the private sector, where companies are able to generate significant cost savings by abolishing check payments and the manual processing of monthly salaries and withholding fees,” Abad said.

The NPS will guarantee the timely remittance of withheld fees and taxes to the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), the Pag-ibig Fund, and PhilHealth.

The system will also help the Department identify ghost employees and other irregularities.

“To qualify for an ATM payroll account, you must apply for it in person with proper identification and the necessary endorsement from your mother agency. An agency’s payroll database should also agree with the bank’s own records,” said Abad.

Civil servants in all agencies will be asked to link their ATM accounts to their payroll accounts.

Land Bank and the Deveopment Bank of the Philippines will be the two main disbursing banks.  – Rappler.com

Image of hand holding ATM card from Shutterstock.