SOME members of the Division of Customs and Biodiversity personnel may stage a protest at the Department of Finance this week over a recent promotion of personnel that bypassed senior officers, Customs Director Jose Mafnas said.
In a memorandum on Tuesday, he informed Finance Secretary David DLG Atalig that the “personnel actions that your office routed have caused a commotion within the division, resulting in loss of morale among those that were not selected for a promotion.”
Mafnas said “the level of enthusiasm and overall performance” among Customs personnel is now low, thus “affecting border security.”
“I do not know how to sufficiently answer why they were not selected for a promotion or how the selections were conducted,” Mafnas said.
“I understand that the promotions may have been based on the desk audit; however, the desk audit was not comprehensive and did not include performance ratings, attendance and overall skillsets. This promotion bypasses some senior officers, as well as promotes Inspector II to an Officer I, while some Inspector III’s are more qualified to be promoted to a supervisory status,” he added.
Mafnas said he “heard from those who were not selected in this promotion their willingness to stage a protest at your office.”
Mafnas said he recognizes that the Finance secretary is the expenditure authority for Customs and Biodiversity, but “I supervise these officers on a daily basis.”
To ensure that border security is not compromised, Mafnas said he needs “to ensure all personnel are treated fairly in terms of promotions or merit increases.”
He said Atalig’s “action to handpick who to promote is a blatant disrespect to the entire Customs Biosecurity personnel.”
Asked for comment, Atalig said the department has completed a desk audit of all its divisions and it has been one of his goals, as secretary of Finance, “to place each and every staff member in the correct step/grade for the work they are performing.”
He said, based on the desk audit, he has reclassified many staff members of the other divisions, and it is no different for Customs and Biosecurity.
“We started working on the reclassification and justifications based on the desk audit and all should be placed and paid according to the work they have been assigned to,” Atalig reiterated.
Division of Customs and Biodiversity Director Jose Mafnas speaks during a press conference in this file photo.
