All government agencies, including Malacanang, that will fail to comply with the mandated "energy savings" policy under the Government Energy Management Program (GEMP) of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act will be slapped with penalties, according to the Department of Energy.
The DOE, which is the lead-entity of the Inter-Agency Energy Efficiency and Conservation Committee (IAEECC), already started undertaking spot checks this month on government agencies to evaluate their compliance to the prescribed 10 percent reduction both on their fuel and electricity consumption.
Patrick T. Aquino, director of the DOE’s Energy Utilization Management Bureau (DOE-EUMB), said the enforcement of the policy will not spare any government agency, whether that is the Office of the President, the DOE, other national government agencies (NGAs), government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs), local government units (LGUs) or the state-owned colleges and universities.
He qualified that for the DOE, in particular, “We follow the requirement. We are leading by example, so we are complying with what the directive states.”
Last month, Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi issued the IAEECC directive prescribing the "energy efficiency mandate" to all government agencies. The order covers fuel usage for vehicles, as well as on the use of office equipment and appliances, including air-conditioning systems.
“We’re doing energy spot checks for the government side. We started this week and we will have a schedule...there’s a protocol that we will be following – essentially, we’re looking at the compliance part of the checklist that we released last March 15,” Aquino said.
Based on those spot checks on government agencies, he indicated that the offices will be given ratings of 1 to 5 stars – and this shall be posted at the entrance door of their office buildings. If the agency’s star rating is 1 – that means "fail", -- the penalty could be imposed on the head of the agency.
“Under the GEMP guidelines, liability is on the head of the agency based on the penalties under existing Civil Service Rules...penalty imposition, after due process, ranges from P5,000 to P50,000,” Aquino stressed.
He emphasized that “based on existing requirement, if the violation is with respect to discharge of function, penalty cannot be charged on the agency, so it’s going to be on the account of the individual,” or the head of agency that will be responsible for the penalty payment.
The baseline year for the targeted energy savings is 2015 data, but the DOE official specified that agencies could also submit their preferred reference year subject to the evaluation and approval of the DOE.
“Our reference period under the GEMP, we’re using 2015. But if the energy baseline for 2015 is not available, the agency can request or submit their proposed baseline, and that is to be approved by the DOE,” Aquino stated.