The Department of Finance (DOF) agrees with the proposal excluding the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) from the Salary Standardization Law (SSL) on the condition they give up the security of tenure extended to civil servants.
“I already said many times, you want to be exempted you’ll also be exempted from security of tenure. You want to be paid like the private sector, you should also have the same terms of employment as the private sector. No security of tenure, that’s one of the points that we raised,” Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III told financial reporters.
Under the Constitution, security of tenure means a civil servant may not be dismissed from service for causes other than those provided by law and only after due process.
Earlier, BIR Commissioner Caesar R. Dulay said the proposal to exempt the BIR from the SSL would be studied further since there may be other areas the bureau can tap for the increase.
“I [the proposal] is still in Congress. We will study it because there may be other ways for the increases. We are discussing it,” Dulay told financial reporters.
Aside from the DOF supporting the increase in the salary of employees of the bureau, one other proposes the privatization of certain government assets to support the increase.
“The improvement may be through privatization,” he added.
Earlier in the year, the BIR emphasized the need for the agency to be exempted from the SSL so as to recruit more personnel to fill gaps in manpower and to help stop corruption in the bureau.