DECS to utilize new payroll system to curb corruption

The Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS) will implement a new supplemental payroll system for teachers and employees starting March 1, after a P4.2-million salary scam was uncovered.

Rolando Checa, head of DECS’ Payroll Service Division (PSD), said the new scheme will provide check and balance in the processing of supplemental or late payroll checks.

"A revised procedure on the processing and release of supplemental payroll checks will be adopted to improve the system and strengthen our internal control of this matter," Checa said.

The department discovered that a PSD employee in charge of the payroll of Eastern Visayas teachers and a janitor assigned to the Accounting Division were behind the anomaly.

Reports showed that from April to June last year, the PSD personnel made double payments to legitimate teachers, and from July to December, prepared checks using fictitious names.

As modus operandi, the PSD staffer encoded the payroll in diskettes and submitted them to the DECS’ Data Center for the printing of the checks.

After the checks had been prepared, the janitor would then collect them. The checks were supposed to be submitted for auditing by the DECS’ Internal Control Unit (ICU), but the janitor had segregated the illegally prepared ones.

As a policy, a copy of the payroll form was to be forwarded to the ICU. This did not happen because the janitor had intercepted the copy.

"The perpetrator (PSD employee) might have listed the supplementary numbers to be taken out and requested the janitor to deliver the checks and all the copies of the supplementary payroll directly to him. As such, no copies were given to (the person) in charge of the pre-audit section," Checa said.

The old system has been in use at DECS for more than 10 years.