Underperforming BIR offices face revamp

Heads will roll at the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) after several revenue regional offices failed to meet their respective collection goals for the first quarter of this year, a ranking BIR official said yesterday.

During the Newsmakers Forum at the Century Park Hotel yesterday, BIR deputy commissioner for resource management Estrelita Aguirre said Internal Revenue Commissioner Dakila Fonacier has already called the attention of all the regional offices that were not able to achieve their collection targets.

"The Commissioner (Fonacier) met with all these offices that did not attain their goals for the past three months. He has given them up to this month to improve their collections," Aguirre said.

Next month, Aguirre said they would review the performances of these regional offices and determine which need to be "revamped." "We will know (what to do) after this month. We will decide within the month whether to remove or move those who are not performing well," she said.

However, she said all the regional heads would be given a chance to explain why they were not able to meet their goals.

"If we prove that their performance is unsatisfactory, then we have no choice but to do something about. But, we promised to be objective about it," she said.

She said they would first analyze the respective goals given to each regional office. "We should know the reasons behind the under performance first."

When Fonacier assumed office early this year, he committed to support the so-called Lateral Attrition Bill which seeks to promote efficiency in the collection of taxes and duties and the granting of incentives to revenue-generating agencies.

Under the proposed law, 10 percent of revenue collection over and above the target set by the Department of Finance for a particular BIR agency would be distributed among employees if they exceed their revenue targets for a specific period.

If a branch fails to meet its target, a "lateral attrition" scheme impose penalties like transfer or relief from position.

Fonacier reported that seven out of 19 revenue regional offices have met their collection goals for the first quarter of this year. However, he noted that 17 out of these 19 regions were able to exceed targets for the month of March.

The Estrada administration is pushing for the passage of a law that would provide incentives and rewards to government collection agencies like the BIR and the BOC.