Department of Budget and Management Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman urged Congress to pass the National Government Rightsizing Program (NGRP) to address the issue of unfilled plantilla positions in the government.
During a hearing of the Senate finance committee, Pangandaman said that the NGRP will reclassify the job positions to fill up vacant posts by job order and contract of service workers.
"The Rightsizing Program po will fix the long-standing issue on unfilled positions. It's not just about removing and consolidating agencies but at the same time, we wanted to also fix the positions, and then do reclassifications within departments and agencies across the national government," she said.
"We hope that the proposed bill will be passed into law this year. The overarching goal here is to have a bureaucracy that is agile and responsive, especially in modern times. We don’t want a government that is overly bloated and provides poor service,” she added.
“It's a waste of the people's money. We will do this by determining which among the government agencies may be streamlined, and which among them need to be strengthened," the DBM chief further said.
The NGRP aims to promote a lean, efficient, and responsive government workforce by streamlining the agency operations, rightsizing their organizational structure and workforce complement, improving interoperability in government agencies, and eliminating functions, programs, and projects that are redundant, overlapping, or no longer necessary.
Pangandaman also said that the DBM and the Civil Service Commission may release a circular memorandum to order government agencies to fill up the vacant positions.
"We can issue a circular of sorts—the Civil Service Commission and DBM—to really encourage all agencies across the board to reclassify and fill their positions," she said.
"Not everyone is requesting. It really depends on the priorities of the department and agency," she added.
Earlier, the DBM chief said that the NGRP aims to address underspending, together with the implementation of the New Government Procurement Act, digital transformation, and Cash Budgeting System, among others