Citing lack of manpower, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto warned on Monday the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) must first address its manpower inadequacy before the agency can take in some 5.5 million households, who shall be enrolled in the rebate scheme of the Duterte administration’s newly enacted Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN).
Recto raised the warning after Malacañang confirmed the allocation of P24.5 billion in the 2018 national budget for TRAIN assistance, which, he said, included unconditional cash grants to the poorest 50 percent of households identified by the DSWD.
In a news statement, Recto said that some 5.5 million households, who are not listed in the government’s conditional-cash transfer (CCT) program, will get P200 per month from the government to help them weather the impact of new taxes on the cost of living.
“They will join 4.5 million presently enrolled CCT families whose monthly stipends will also be increased by P200—bringing to 10 million the number of families who will be aided so they could cope with TRAIN-triggered hikes in the prices of goods,” Recto said.
The senator noted that while the 2018 national budget lodges the P24.5 billion in TRAIN rebates with the LandBank of the Philippines (LandBank), “we all know that it is just being parked here.”
Recto voiced concern that the LandBank has “no capacity to pinpoint recipients,” even as the lawmaker noted that it will be the DSWD rank and file that will “have a say on how it will be disbursed.”
He noted that the DSWD, which is expected to serve at least 55 million clients this year, “will have so much on its plate that it will be hard-pressed to serve more people.”
Recto added that identification of beneficiaries alone is already a major production, “not to mention the delivery of the financial aid,” to qualified recipients.
According to Recto, the DSWD only has 2,842 regular employees to serve a clientele base of 28 million, on whom P137.5 billion will be spent this year. “Since 2010 the budget of the DSWD has ballooned eightfold, but its manpower grew by 10 percent only,” he said.
Because TRAIN beneficiaries are projected to be much more than CCT enrollees, he estimated the number of people being assisted by the DSWD will double. “So, let us not say this will have no impact on the DSWD’s organizational capacity,” Recto added.
“To be able to meet its multiple mandates, DSWD has been forced to hire a large army of temporary employees numbering 25,122, under an alphabet soup of hiring schemes,” Recto said.
“The result is that 9 in 10 DSWD employees are nonpermanent. Many of them, in the service for decades, remain under contractual status with no security of tenure,” he added.
Recto lamented that the combination of the rapid expansion of beneficiaries and the freeze in manpower strength resulted in deficiencies. He noted that the Commission on Audit (COA) had even recommended the DSWD suspend the expansion of CCT beneficiaries until leakages in the system are plugged.
He cited the case of duplicate entries in the roster of CCT beneficiaries that led to the “unauthorized release of grants amounting to about P335 million,” according to a 2017 COA report.
“Another bad side effect of having a big budget and a small staff is that, when funds are not liquidated by DSWD recipients, the responsible DSWD officers are the ones sanctioned,” Recto said.
He added that due to the number of signatures required for public funds to be released, the implementation of projects have been delayed, citing for instance the DSWD’s ability to spend allotments, failing to obligate P23 billion from 2015 to middle of 2017.