DAVAO CITY—A non-operating Bangsamoro government is likely to happen next year if the 2020 regional budget is not passed this year, Bangsamoro officials said, citing the urgency to hire new personnel to fill the large void that will be left by outgoing personnel of the now defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
All the 6,000 employees of the ARMM are working on holdover capacity until December only. A provision of the governing Bangsamoro Organic Law has prohibited the BARMM from rehiring in the next five years all ARMM employees who have resigned or retired.
The Bangsamoro spokesman, Naguib Sinarimbo, said the urgent passage of the budget before the year ends is necessary to avoid disruption in government operation.
“The
urgency of that is, if we fail to make appointments and comply with the
publication requirements of the positions within December, we will have a
situation where will not have a government operating by January 2020; and we
don’t want that to
happen,” he said.
The sense of urgency was heightened last week as Bangsamoro Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim reshuffled two regional cabinet ministers and placed the budget and finance ministry under his direct supervision.
Sinarimbo said Ebrahim has instructed the Ministry of Budget, Finance, and Management (MFBM) to complete the preparation of the budget before November 14.
The proposed regional budget will be submitted to Ebrahim for review, after which he will convene his cabinet to finalize the 2020 budget proposal.
According to Sinarimbo, “the cabinet may be in session to complete the preparations for the budget before the Chief Minister submits the budget of the government of the day as a cabinet proposal to the parliament.”
The Chief Minister was also expected to request the holding of a special session of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) on November 18 to deliberate on the proposed budget. The Bangsamoro Parliament holds regular sessions on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays of every third and fourth week of the month.
Sinarimbo said the Bangsamoro government hoped to enact the 2020 Regional Appropriations Act on November 21 and have it published the following day.
“After it becomes effective after 15 days, we can proceed with hiring people for January. We need to commence the process of hiring people in December because we will need to publish vacant positions,” Sinarimbo said. The Regional Appropriations Act is one of the seven priority bills of the BARMM parliament that would set up the allotment for the BARMM offices.
The first of 500 ARMM employees were terminated as of October 31 and the second batch will end their services by November 15. All the remaining ARMM employees will end their service by the end of December.
Earlier, on November 4, Ebrahim said Abdulraof Macacua will be out as Environment Minister to serve as the region’s Executive Secretary. Macacua will still serve in the oversight of the environment ministry. Eduard Guerra, a licensed architect, will move from his post as Finance minister to the Ministry of Public Works.
The MBFBM would be placed under the direct supervision of the Chief Minister.