REVENUE MEMORANDUM CIRCULAR NO. 94-2019 issued on September 9, 2019 publishes the full text of Administrative Order 25 Inter-Agency Task Force Memorandum Circular No. 2019-1 entitled “Guidelines on the Grant of the Performance-Based Bonus for Fiscal Year 2019 under Executive Order (EO) No. 80, s., 2012 and EO No. 201, s., 2016”.

All personnel of departments/agencies holding regular, contractual and casual positons are covered by the Circular. Excluded from the coverage are individuals engaged without employer-employee relationship and funded from non-Personnel Services (PS) budget.

To be eligible for the grant of Performance-Based Bonus (PBB), each agency must satisfy the following conditions:
A. Good Governance Conditions (GGCs). Satisfy 100% of the GGCs for FY 2019 as provided in Section 4.0, to wit:
i. Maintain/Update the agency Transparency Seal (TS) pursuant to Section 106 of the General Provisions of the FY 2019 General Appropriations Act (GM).
ii. Update the PhiIGEPS posting of all Invitations to Bids and awarded contracts pursuant to the Government Procurement Reform Act (RA No. 9184) for transactions above Php 1 Million from January 1 to December 31, 2019, including Early Procurement of FY 2020 Non – Common Use Supplies and Equipment (Non – CSE) items.
iii. Maintain/Update the Citizen’s or Service Charter or its equivalent, reflecting the agency’s enhanced service standards for all its government services to citizens, businesses, and government agencies, consistent with the objectives of RA No. 11032 and the President’s directive to reduce processing time of all public transactions with government and ensure accessible and convenient delivery of services to the public.

Departments/Agencies shall submit their respective Certificates of Compliance (C0C) based on the format prescribed by the Anti-Red 3 Tape Authority (“Authority”) on or before December 31, 2019 through the A025 Secretariat. The Authority shall conduct a validation of the Citizen’s or Service Charter or its equivalent starting January 2020.

Non-compliance with any of the GGCs will render the entire department/agency ineligible for the PBB. The assessment of agency compliance with GGC requirements shall be conducted starting October 1, 2019.

B. Performance Targets of Agencies. Achieve each one of the Physical Targets, Support to Operations (STO) and General Administration and Support Services (GASS) requirements for FY 2019.
i. Streamlining and Process Improvement of the Agency’s Critical Services covering all Government-to-Citizens (G2C), Government-to-Businesses (G2B) and Government-toGovernment (G2G) transactions as declared in the agency’s Citizen’s/Service Charter – Agencies shall determine and report the Number of Steps, Turnaround Time, Number of Signatures, Number of Required Documents, Transaction Costs and Substantive Compliance Costs, which shall serve as the baseline data for each service/process.

Departments/agencies shall set their FY 2019 Streamlining Improvement Target for each streamlining criteria for every declared service, including the following specific targets:
a. Reduction in the number of signatures to not more than three (3);
b. Simplification of application forms or reduction in the number of documentary requirements;
c. Reduction in the turnaround time and completion of the transaction in accordance with the provisions of the Ease of Doing Business (EODB) Law
not to exceed the maximum period of three (3), seven (7), and twenty (20) based on the classification of transactions, unless otherwise indicated under
special laws.

Departments/agencies shall submit supporting documents such as flow charts, legal bases, additional documents, etc. to show actual improvements, and proof of
streamlining accomplishments. In the event the department/agency is unable to achieve the targets they set in this section, they shall provide justifications, explanations, and supporting documents using the remarks. The acceptance of explanation shall be subject to the review and recommendation of the validating agency.

ii. Citizen/Client Satisfaction – Agencies should embed feedback mechanisms and citizen/client satisfaction measurement in their process improvement efforts. Using the improvement action plan that agencies reported for FY 2018 PBB, agencies shall report the results of the Citizen/Client Satisfaction Survey for each service.

Departments/agencies shall report the following information using the Citizen/Client Satisfaction Report:
a. Description of the methodology of the Citizen/Client Satisfaction Survey used for each reported service
b. Results of the Citizen/Client Satisfaction Survey for FY 2019
c. Results of their action plan reported in the FY 2018 PBB
d. Continuous improvement plan for FY 2020

iii. Support to Operations Target – Initial certification/re-certification of the QMS for at least one (1) core process or frontline service as mandated under its existing pertinent laws. For frontline agencies, it is expected that the core process pertains to an agency process most demanded by citizens and business and targeted for improvement.

For the ISO 9001:2015 QMS certification, it must be issued by any of the certification bodies (CBs) accredited by the International Accreditation Forum (IAF)
members. The certification(s)/re-certification(s) must be valid as of December 31, 2019, and must be posted in the agency Transparency Seal (TS) webpage not later than December 31, 2019. A certified true copy of the Agency’s QMS Certificate/s shall be submitted to the Government Quality Management Committee (GQMC), through its DBM Secretariat – Systems and Productivity Improvement Bureau (SPIB), not later than December 31, 2019, for validation purposes.

iv. General Administration and Support Services (GASS) Targets – The common GASS targets shall include the following:
 Budget Utilization Rate (BUR)
 Sustained Compliance with Audit Findings
 Compliance with Quarterly Submission of Budget and Financial Accountability Reports (BFARs) Online Using the DBM’s Unified Reporting System (URS) 30
days after end of every quarter
 Submission of Annual Procurement Plan (APP-non CSE) approved by the Head of Procuring Entity (HOPE) to the Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB) in the format prescribed under GPPB Circular No. 07-2015. The FY 2019 APP-non CSE should have been submitted to the GPPB-TSO on March 31, 2019 and posted on the agency TS page not later than one month after the issuance of the Circular.
 Submission of FY 2020 Annual Procurement Plan-Common-Use Supplies and Equipment (FY 2020 APP-CSE) to the DBM-Procurement Service and posting of
the same in the agency TS page on or before October 31, 2019
 Undertaking of Early Procurement for at least 50% of the value of goods and services based on the department’s/agency’s budget submitted to the Congress
consistent with the National Expenditure Program
 Submission of results of FY 2018 Agency Procurement Compliance and Performance Indicators (APCPI) System

v. Other cross-cutting requirements
 Establishment and conduct of Agency Review and Compliance Procedure of SALN and compliance with the Freedom of information (FOI) Program.

In case a department/agency is not able to meet any of the above Performance Targets, the Department Secretary/Head of Agency should submit the justifications/explanations and supporting documents to warrant reconsideration. For validation purposes, justifiable reasons are factors that are considered outside the control of the agency. Acceptance of justifications/explanations shall be subject to the recommendation of validating agencies.

To reinforce fairness in the assessment of the performance of each delivery unit under operations with those under support services, departments/agencies should also declare non-frontline services provided to units/employees performed by the latter delivery units. Doing so will strengthen the accountability of every delivery unit in streamlining and improving their processes and services to citizens/clients, internal units/employees and to the Composite Team from AO 25 IATF agencies. Likewise, it will also provide performance data to support the equitable ranking of each delivery unit. Departments/Agencies shall also report applicable baseline information.

C. Performance Rating System to be Used for Personnel in the First and Second Levels, and for Career Executive Service (CES) positions. Use the CSC-approved Strategic Performance Management System (SPMS) in rating the performance of the First and Second Level officials and employees of departments/agencies in NGAs, GOCCs and LGUs, including officials holding managerial or Director positions but are not Presidential appointees. The rating of the performance of Career Executive Service (CES) officers and incumbents to CES positions shall be based on the guidelines issued by the Career Executive Service Board (CESB).

Department Secretaries, Heads of Other Executive Offices, Chairpersons and Commissioners of Constitutional Offices, Heads of Attached Agencies, Presidents of SUCs, and non-ex officio Heads of GOCCs covered by DBM are eligible only if their respective departments/agencies/institutions are eligible. If eligible, their maximum PBB rate for FY 2019 shall be equivalent to 65% of their monthly basic salary as of December 31, 2019.

Employees belonging to the First, Second and Third Levels should receive a rating of at least “Satisfactory” based on the agency’s CSC-approved SPMS or the requirement prescribed by the CESB.

An official or employee who has rendered less than nine (9) months but a minimum of three (3) months of service with at least Satisfactory rating shall be eligible for the grant of the PBB on a pro-rata basis corresponding to the actual length of service rendered, as follows:

LENGTH OF SERVICE % OF PBB
8 months but less than 9 months 90%
7 months but less than 8 months 80%
6 months but less than 7 months 70%
5 months but less than 6 months 60%
4 months but less than 5 months 50%
3 months but less than 4 months 40%

The following are the valid reasons for an employee who may not meet the ninemonth actual service requirement to be considered for PBB on a pro-rata basis:
a. Being a newly hired employee;
b. Retirement;
c. Resignation;
d. Rehabilitation Leave;
e. Maternity Leave and/or Paternity Leave;
f. Vacation or Sick Leave with or without pay;
g. Scholarship/Study Leave;
h. Sabbatical Leave

Personnel not eligible to the grant of the FY 2018 PBB are the following:
a. An employee who is on vacation or sick leave, with or without pay for the entire year;
b. Personnel found guilty of administrative and/or criminal cases by final and executory judgement in FY 2019 (if the penalty meted out is only a reprimand, such penalty shall not cause the disqualification to PBB);
c. Officials and employees who failed to submit the 2018 Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth(SALN) or those who are responsible for the noncompliance with the establishment and conduct of the review and compliance procedure of SALN;
d. Officials and employees who failed to liquidate all cash advances received in FY 2019 within the reglementary period; and
e. Officials and employees who failed to submit their complete SPMS Forms.

Officials and employees responsible for the implementation of the prior years’ audit recommendations, QMS Certification, or posting and dissemination of the
department/agency system of ranking performance of delivery units, shall not be entitled to the FY 2019 PBB if the Department/Agency fails to comply with any of the said requirements.

Bureaus, offices or delivery units eligible to the PBB shall be forced ranked according to the following categories:
RANKING PERFORMANCE CATEGORY
Top 10% Best Delivery Units
Next 25% Better Delivery Units
Next 65% Good Delivery Units

The declarations of responsible bureaus/offices/delivery units in the completion of each critical service or other key processes shall be the basis for equitable performance
ranking of delivery units.
To facilitate the ranking of delivery units, agencies may group or cluster the delivery units based on similarities of tasks and responsibilities for purposes of evaluating and ranking group and individual performance. Only the personnel belonging to eligible delivery units are qualified for the PBB.

The rates of the PBB for each individual shall be based on the performance ranking of the individual’s bureau or delivery unit with the rate of incentive as a multiple of one’s monthly basic salary as of December 31, 2019 based on the table below:

PERFORMANCE CATEGORY MULTIPLE OF BASIC SALARY
Best Delivery Unit 0.65
Better Delivery Unit 0.575
Good Delivery Unit 0.50

For FY 2019, agencies that are unable to comply with all Good Governance Conditions shall be considered ineligible for the FY 2019 PBB. Departments/ Agencies that are unable to comply with a maximum of two (2) Performance Targets due to controllable factors as determined by the validating agencies shall be considered ineligible for the FY 2019 PBB.

In the event the AO No. 25 IATF conducted random check of submitted SALN of employees and found non-compliance with the guidelines prescribed by the CSC and the posted Review and Compliance Procedure of the concerned department/agency, such incident could be a cause to disqualify the department/agency in the succeeding cycle of the PBB.

A Department/Agency/GOCC/LWD/LGU, which, after due process by the oversight agency, has been determined to have committed the following prohibited acts, shall be disqualified from the PBB in the succeeding year of its implementation:
a. Misrepresentation in the submitted reports required for the PBB, commission of fraud in the payment of the PBB and violation of the provisions of the Circular;
and
b. Evenly distributing PBB among employees in an agency, in violation of the policy of paying the PBB based on the ranking of delivery units. Moreover, the CSC or Ombudsman shall file the appropriate administrative case.