MANILA, Philippines – President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has suspended the implementation of the government’s Results-Based Performance Management System (RBPMS) and Performance-Based Incentive System (PBIS) and ordered the “streamlining, overhauling, improving, and simplifying” of such systems.

The RBPMS and PBIS were two systems meant to work together in standardizing performance management and incentives for the government. The RBPMS was originally created through a 2011 administrative order by the Aquino administration, which envisioned a single performance management system across all departments and agencies of the executive branch.

Meanwhile, the PBIS was a component of the RBPMS created through a 2012 executive order, also by the Aquino administration. According to the Official Gazette, the PBIS allowed government employees to receive performance-based bonuses based on their contribution to a department’s targets. It also allowed for the issuance of productivity enhancement incentives not based on performance.

However, according to the President, these systems had not worked as intended. Through Executive Order No. 61, issued on June 3, the Palace said that the RBPMS and PBIS were “duplicative and redundant with the internal and external performance audit and evaluation systems of the government.”

The same EO also said the systems “lacked a review mechanism, leading to the accumulation of rules, regulations, and issuances from the [Inter-Agency Task Force], thereby making compliance therewith burdensome, bureaucratic, laborious, and time-consuming for government agencies.”

To lead this overhaul, the President’s order called for the creation of a technical working group (TWG) that will study and review the RBPMS and PBIS. The TWG was also tasked to ensure that the new government performance management system aligned with the government’s internal audit program and activities.

The TWG will include the budget secretary as chair, the executive secretary as co-chair, and the secretaries of finance and the National Economic and Development Authority as well as the director general of the Anti-Red Tape Authority as its members.

The TWG must submit its findings to the Office of the President within six months of the EO’s effectivity. Within three months, they must also propose a transition plan for the grant of performance-based bonuses for the fiscal year of 2023. – Rappler.com