REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER NO. 4-2021 issued on January 6, 2021 consolidates the policies and guidelines in the monitoring of attendance and leave management amending Revenue Memorandum Order (RMO) No. 28-2008, as amended by RMO No. 21-2011. As a general rule, employees are strictly required to render eight (8) working hours per day, forty (40) hours per week, excluding one-hour lunch break every day from Monday to Friday, except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, depending on their approved work schedules. All revenue officials and employees are required to use the Biometrics Time and Attendance System (BTAS) machines upon arrival in the morning (Check-in), during lunch break (Break-out and Break-in) and upon departure from office (Check-out). However, the following officials and employees are exempted and will only be required to manually log/record their daily attendance in the Daily Record of Attendance/Log Book (DRA) and correspondingly file their Application for Leave (AFL), if any:  Commissioner of Internal Revenue (CIR)  Deputy Commissioner of Internal Revenue (DCIR)  Assistant Commissioner of Internal Revenue (ACIR)  Head Revenue Executive Assistant (HREA)  Chief of Staff (OCIR and ODCIR)  Regional Director (RD)  Assistant Regional Director (ARD)  Other personnel as approved by the CIR due to the exigency of the service  Employees whose fingerprints cannot be read by the biometrics machines due to sickness (skin disease or similar thereof) as validated and approved by their HREA/ARD. All officials and employees must timely file their AFL with required attachments, if any, for approval/disapproval of their Approving Officer specified in the Order. For BIR NO officials and employees, the AFL must be filed in the ESS, for approval/disapproval. The National Office (NO) officials and employees are required to file their missing time-log entries in the Employee Self Service (ESS) and provide the reason/s subject for online approval/disapproval by their Head/Assistant Head of Office. However, Regions may manually use the “Justification for Editing Biometrics Entries”, for approval/disapproval of their Head of Office, for records and audit purposes, until such time that they procured the required BTAS. For employees authorized to render overtime (OT), they are required to use the biometrics machines to monitor their extended hours rendered. Those holding positions higher than Division Chief or equivalent levels are not allowed to claim for OT pay and may be required to render services beyond the regular working hours when exigency of the service so requires. All employees shall be required to manually log-in in the DRA their check-in, breakout, break-in and check-out, and affixed their signature to record their presence in the Office. Any employee who is absent in the morning is considered to be tardy and is subject to the provisions on Habitual Tardiness, and those who are absent in the afternoon is considered to have incurred undertime, pursuant to Civil Service Commission (CSC) Memorandum Circular (MC) No. 17, s. 2010. Tardiness and undertime incurred is deductible to vacation leave credits only. There shall be no off-setting of tardiness or absences by working beyond the regular or approved working hours for an equivalent number of minutes or hours by which an officer or employee has been tardy or absent. Employees on half-day/undertime shall be required to check-out in the biometrics machines and log-out in the DRA as they leave the Office. As a general rule, employees whose duty require them to leave the office and work in the field shall check-in to the biometrics machines, register in the DRA, and accomplish the Daily Time Log Sheet Form signed by the Head of Office, except for instances when using the Biometrics Machine is not applicable as specified in the Order. Employees availing of a flexi-time schedule shall seek the approval of the CIR. Priority of choice in the time-shift schedule shall be granted to those covered by existing policies such as solo parents, employees caring for senior citizen parents, Persons with Disability (PWD), employees with severe health conditions and undergoing medical procedures. Requests for reasons other than those within the scope of existing policies shall be allowed subject to the approval of the CIR or his duly authorized representative, provided that it can still be accommodated by BTAS being used to monitor time and attendance of employees. Flexi-time schedule shall be subject to the exigency of the service, as determined by each Head of Office. In this regard, each Head of Office shall prepare a list of all its employees showing the time-shift schedule distribution of employees, preferably with an employee distribution of 10-80-10 for monitoring purposes, as follows: 10% of total office personnel may choose 7:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.; 80% of total personnel may choose 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.; and 10% of total office personnel may choose 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. The time shift of 7:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. and 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. can only be availed of by those employees whose work require them to be in the office premises most of the time. Thus, it cannot be availed by employees requiring field work. All offices are mandated to have at least a functioning skeletal work force for every hour covered by the shifting schedule. It shall be the responsibility of each Head of Office to ensure that the flexi-time schedule will not hamper the continuous delivery of service to the public. An employee who has an approved flexible working schedule cannot change the chosen time shift one (1) year upon its effectivity. The flexi-time schedule shall continue as such, until another written request changing the flexi-time schedule is duly approved by the CIR. The monthly Summary Report of Attendance (SRA) shall indicate information such as the minutes/hours of tardiness and undertimes of an employee per day and for the month as well as his/her leave of absence, among others. The SRA with complete attachments shall be submitted to the Personnel Division (PD)/Administrative and Human Resource Management Division (AHRMD) on or before the 10th day of the following month. Consequently, the Regional Office SRA shall be submitted to the PD on or before the 15th day of the following month. Supplemental SRA with DTR of employees who were not able to submit the same on time, whether due to prolonged leave, pending issuance of their certificate of court appearance or Revenue Special Order (RSO) signed by authorized signatory, shall be submitted to the PD/AHRMD on or before the 25th of the following month. The DTR of the employee with corresponding RSO to Department of Finance or other government agencies shall be signed by the Head of the Special Project. The employee shall be included in the SRA of their mother unit. Large Taxpayers Service (LTS) employees assigned as Zone-in-Charge, Revenue Officer-on Premise (ROOP) and Excise Tax Area (EXTA) personnel shall submit their SRA and DTR to the BIR office where their payroll is being processed. The Regional Office may procure a biometrics system similar to BTAS used by the NO or a higher specification biometrics system whether fingerprint scanning, face recognition or any other time recording machine, as long as the data output of said units must be compatible to BTAS of the NO in reference to the attached approved Terms of Reference. Employee who renders work during the prescribe hours are entitled to fifteen (15) days vacation leave (VL) and fifteen (15) days sick leave (SL) credits annually or 1.25 days VL and 1.25 SL credits monthly, with full pay. However, employees with Leave Without Pay (LWOP), their earned leave credits per month will be reduced corresponding to the number of hours or days of their LWOP as per existing CSC Omnibus Rules on leave. All Heads of Office must approve/disapprove all applications for leave filed by their employees within five (5) working days from receipt thereof, otherwise it shall be deemed approved. When an employee exhausted his/her sick leave credits, he can use his/her VL credits but not vice-versa (Section 56 of CSC Omnibus Rules on Leave). New employees on probationary status may already avail all vacation and sick leave credits earned. However, they cannot avail the Special Privilege Leave (MC6) within their probationary period. In the exigency of the service, applications for VL may be disapproved. In extreme cases, the Head of Office may recall an employee who is on approved VL. Thereafter, the unused VL shall be credited back to the leave credits of the employee. Employees who incurred LWOP by exhausting their leave credits shall be cancelled from the General Office Payroll (GOP) and a Supplemental Payroll shall be prepared after compliance or submission of required documents to the PD/AHRMD. The said employees and the Accounting/Finance Division shall be issued Notice of LWOP. Only after earning at least five (5) days vacation leave will said employees’ salary be included in the regular GOP. Said employees should immediately pay any salary overpayment to the General Services Division (GSD)/AHRMD-GSS and provide a copy of the Official Receipt (OR) of Payment to the Accounting Division/Finance Division and PD/Human Resource Management Section-AHRMD, for records purposes. The OR shall be attached to the leave card for proper reconciliation upon separation from the service. Late submission of DTR and SRA of an office will result to late processing of Representation and Transportation Allowance (RATA) of officials. Non-submission of SRA and DTR for at least one (1) month is sufficient ground for suspension of salaries of all employees assigned at that Office. However, upon submission of the SRA and DTR with justification, the office concerned will be included in the next GOP. Any employee shall be considered habitually tardy if he incurs tardiness, regardless of the number of minutes, ten (10) times a month for at least two months in a semester or at least two consecutive months in a year pursuant to CSC MC no. 23, series of 1998. Any employee who incurs undertime, regardless of the number minutes/hours, ten (10) times a month for at least two months in a semester or at least two consecutive months in a year shall be liable for Simple Misconduct and/or Conduct Prejudicial to the Best Interest of the Service, as the case may be, pursuant to CSC MC no. 16, series of 2010. Any employee in the civil service shall be considered habitually absent if he incurs unauthorized absences exceeding the allowable 2.5 days monthly leave credit under the leave law for at least three (3) months in a semester or at least three (3) consecutive months during the year. Unauthorized absences are those not covered with approved leave application or not notifying the immediate supervisor of his sick leave or emergency within the first two (2) hours of work in the morning/beginning hour of work for the day. An employee is guilty of loafing if he/she incurs frequent unauthorized absences from duty during office hours. Head of Office shall report erring employees who are habitually absent/tardy/undertime/loafing to the Internal Investigation Division (IID) or Regional Investigation Division (RID), for issuance of a Show-Cause Order. An employee who is on Absent Without Official Leave (AWOL) for at least thirty (30) calendar days shall be recommended by the ACIR/RD for dropping from the rolls. However, Heads of Office are reminded of their responsibility to immediately issue a Return-to-Work Order (RTWO) to employees on AWOL before recommending their dropping from the rolls. An Employee who is on LWOP exceeding one (1) year shall be automatically dropped from the rolls pursuant to Section 62, MC 41, series of 1998 of the CSC. Separated employees shall be reported to the PD/AHRMD within five (5) working days upon receipt of the letter of retirement/resignation/death certificate to avoid salary overpayment. The Head of Office shall be required to accomplish and submit the Report of Separated Employees to the PD/AHRMD, for cancellation in the GOP. An employee who transferred to the BIR from another government agency must submit a certificate of transferred leave credits issued by the Personnel Officer of the agency to the PD/AHRMD within sixty (60) days from reporting for duty. For employees required to secure National or Regional Office Clearance, such as thirty (30) days leave or more, separation from service, etc., the Certificate of LWOP shall be attached by the PD/AHRMD and the corresponding payment are already indicated in the clearance with the attached official receipt issued by GSD/AHRMD-GSS. The penalties for frequent unauthorized absences from duty during regular office hours and loafing; habitual tardiness and undertime; and non-compliance with the provisions of this RMO are prescribed in the Order.