civil Service Comm: 40% of Govt. Officials Unqualified

[Altis6453]

From ABS-CBNNews.com
1/22/08

CSC: 40% of govt officials unqualified for posts


Forty percent of 3,000 government officials, including Cabinet officials, are unqualified to hold their positions, the Civil Service Commission (CSC) bared Tuesday.

CSC chairwoman Karina David said these officials, consisting of managers, directors, assistant secretaries and undersecretaries, do not have the appropriate educational background and skills to perform their duties well.

"They don't have the correct educational skills and appropriate background plus experience to perform their respective duties well," David said.

The CSC study said many government departments and agencies have not complied with the limit on the number of assistant secretaries and undersecretaries, which should only be between four and six.

Among these government offices are the Department of Agrarian Reform, which has eight assistant secretaries and undersecretaries, and Department of National Defense with seven.

David added that the CSC is alarmed that more than 90 former military and police officials are now occupying key government positions. She said these officials are "not necessarily qualified."

Most of these former military and police personnel are now with the Department of Transportation and Communications, Bureau of Immigration and the Mindanao State University (MSU).

"When politics gets in the way, the bureaucracy becomes unprofessional," David said.

The transporation department is led by Secretary Leandro Mendoza, a graduate of the Philippine Military Academy and a former chief of the Philippine National Police.

Ricardo de Leon, a retired police official, is president of MSU while the immigration bureau is headed by Marcelino Libanan, a former congressman.

Now there's someone who's unafraid to tell the truth.

[Altis6453]

Predictable response....

Update from ABS-CBNNews.com
1/23/08

Palace hits Civil Service chief over scathing remaks


Malacañang officials on Wednesday slammed Karina David, outgoing Civil Service Commission (CSC) chairwoman, for remarks made before the Makati Business Club (MBC) against allegedly unqualified Cabinet officials serving under President Arroyo.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye branded David’s statements as sweeping generalization and a disservice to more than one million civil servants in the country.

"Her sweeping generalizations in a luncheon speech do a disservice to the over one million civil servants, both career and appointed, who work diligently each and every day to serve the people of the Philippines. Be that as it may, all presidential appointees must perform. If they don't, they have to go, whatever their credentials may be," Bunye said in a text message to ABS-CBN News.

In her speech Tuesday, David blamed the President for the purported worsening politicization and lack of professionalism in the administration because she allegedly abused her power to appoint officials to government posts.

David also noted that 4,000 qualified personnel were not appointed to executive posts because these positions were filled up by people close to the President. She said that of the 6,000 managerial positions in the government, 3,500 were filled up by presidential appointees instead of career officials.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, on the other hand, said it is the prerogative of the President to appoint officials to posts.

"First we must go by the principle that the President is chief executive and has free hand to chose who she wants to work with because, ultimately, the President as head of government is held accountable for all things that happen under her administration" Ermita said.

During her speech before MBC members, the CSC chief, wife of University of the Philippines professor and Arroyo critic Randy David, said most of the presidential appointees, do not have the appropriate educational background and skills to perform their duties well.

"They don't have the correct educational skills and appropriate background plus experience to perform their respective duties well," David said.

She said that according to a CSC study, many government departments and agencies have not complied with the limit on the number of assistant secretaries and undersecretaries, which should only be between four and six.

Among these government offices are the Department of Agrarian Reform, which has eight assistant secretaries and undersecretaries, and the Department of National Defense with seven.

David added that the CSC is alarmed that more than 90 former military and police officials are now occupying key government positions. She said these officials are "not necessarily qualified."

Most of these former military and police personnel are now with the Department of Transportation and Communications, Bureau of Immigration and the Mindanao State University (MSU).

"When politics gets in the way, the bureaucracy becomes unprofessional," David said.

The transportation department is led by Secretary Leandro Mendoza, a graduate of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) and a former chief of the Philippine National Police.

Ricardo de Leon, a retired police official and PMA graduate, is president of MSU while the immigration bureau is headed by Marcelino Libanan, a former congressman.

Comment:

What does it say of the President if she keeps appointing unqualified or incompetent officials to key government posts?

[Honda97]

it looks like malacanang's response doesn't really answer the statements made. it just tries to throw the attack back to Ms. David.

maybe our lawmakers can change the system in such a way that presidential appointees actually are qualified for the position in terms of educational and experiential background.

[Flagg]

Wag naman ganyan. Pano na mga movie stars in the legislature?

[explorer]

from: www.inquirer.net

Constitutional menace

Editorial - Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 23:05:00 01/24/2008

MANILA, Philippines -- Less than two weeks before she steps down as chair of the Civil Service Commission (CSC), Karina Constantino-David has deplored the penchant of the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for filling positions with political appointees who are not career-service eligible. David said this undermines the overall professionalization and mobility of the civil service while making governance even more problematic.

Speaking before the Makati Business Club, David said that the Arroyo administration has the highest number of presidential appointees in history -- “far more” than previous administrations. She said more than 60 percent of the President’s career executive appointees are not eligible. “There are more than 4,000 eligible people within the government waiting to be appointed, but who gets the job? So-and-so’s child, relative or minion,” she added.

The numbers provided by David are worrisome as they are lugubrious. According to the CSC chair, the administration currently has at least 60 undersecretaries and assistant secretaries in excess of what is provided by law, which is about two or three per department. For instance, the Department of the Interior and Local Government has 10 undersecretaries and assistant secretaries, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has nine, the Department of Agrarian Reform has eight, and the Department of National Defense has seven.

Perhaps just as worrisome is the propensity of President Arroyo to appoint retired military and police officers to executive posts. According to David, there are more than 90 former military and police officials holding key executive positions. She added they are not necessarily qualified for the jobs.

Not mentioned by David but just as alarming is the growing number of presidential assistants and advisers without a portfolio or a line department. The Arroyo administration has 52 presidential assistants, covering even such mundane things as minerals and religious affairs. In many cases, the jobs of the assistants and advisers overlap with those already performed by the line agencies and departments. There’s even a presidential assistant on education despite the fact that there’s a secretary for basic education and a higher education commission with several commissioners. Come to think of it, the latter is now chaired by somebody without a doctorate, contrary to the law creating the commission.

The fact that the President has been appointing executives without the necessary qualifications and naming presidential assistants (in order perhaps to make up for those without eligibility or qualifications) points to an appalling abuse of presidential privilege. In fact, this is the gist of David’s remarks. “The main culprit is the abuse of presidential discretion,” she said. “The bureaucracy can only become professional if we follow the rules properly from top to bottom.”

The abuse is a big blow to governance and transparency. As David said, “[The] bureaucracy is the biggest expense of the budget, but it’s viewed as a liability. Sometimes it’s not even viewed at all... it remains invisible largely because there’s little appreciation of the linkage between bureaucracy and governance.”

The remarks are an indictment of the manner in which Ms Arroyo has politicized the civil service in order to curry favor with her political supporters and retain her grip on government because of serious questions about her legitimacy. And coming from the head of a constitutional commission, they are a lament on how the President’s constitutional woes have made her even more “constitutionally-challenged,” that is, how she’s endangering the very constitutional foundations not only of her administration but of government in general.

The President has already compromised the integrity and independence of the Commission on Elections, refused to cooperate with the Commission on Appointments that is constitutionally mandated to screen her appointees, forbade her Cabinet and other officials from cooperating in legislative inquiries, and made a stab at civil liberties by banning political rallies and even media coverage of conflict situations. Now she’s making a mockery of the civil service. Everywhere she goes, she spits at the Constitution. She’s a walking constitutional menace.

[CVT]

Grabe naman talaga rito sa atin. To make sure that she has the support of the military.... Appoint! appoint! appoint!....

Ganyan na lang ba talaga?

(OT: Next time, use quotes, please)...

5202:threadmil:

[nicolodeon]

it looks like malacanang's response doesn't really answer the statements made. it just tries to throw the attack back to Ms. David.

Why am I not surprised? Typical Malacanang response.

[v6dreamer]

No wonder too many civil servant na palpak sa trabajo. Sa kutong doon magaling.