PSC moves to lay off contractuals

Contractual employees at the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) will keep their fingers crossed starting today as the government sports agency deliberates on the number of contractuals to be laid off this year.

A meeting between the heads of all departments, sections and units at the PSC, and executive director Ed Mateo is scheduled today at 1 p.m. to discuss the impending move which is just part of the agency’s five-point belt-tightening program.

The department, section and unit heads are expected to provide the PSC executive director their guided inputs on their respective personnel. They will be made to justify who among them should stay or should go.

Close to 300 are PSC contractual employees, almost double the number of regular employees. The PSC plans to cut the number of contractuals by half.

The salaries of the contractual employees, which is close to P4 million a month, comes from the National Sports Development Fund (NSDF) which is primarily used to fund the different National Sports Associations (NSAs) and their hundreds of athletes.

The NSDF represents the monthly contributions of other government agencies like Pagcor to the PSC. Since the PSC is running out of funds, cutting down on the number of contractual employees will enable the sports body to give more to the athletes.

Permanent employees’ payroll, which is close to P2 million a month, comes from the General Appropriations Act approved by Congress.

The number of contractual employees at the PSC has grown through the years, mainly because of leftovers, particularly in the offices of the chairman and the four commissioners, after every change of administration.

As part of its belt-tightening program, the PSC will also reduce the number of national athletes from 1,000 to 500, review the janitorial and security contracts, consolidate the projects of the commissioners, and find ways to save on operational expenses such as electricity, water and phone bills.