WB lends $67.34M for PH civil service

TRADITIONAL SERVICE Workers of the Land Transportation Office attend to a client at the agency’s headquarters in Quezon City. —Inquirer file photo

MANILA, Philippines — The World Bank (WB) on Saturday approved a $67.34 million loan for the Philippines to fund the modernization of the civil service.

The fresh financing will bankroll the “Philippine Civil Service Modernization Project,” which will support the establishment of a Human Resources Management Information System (HRMIS) and payroll system in the government, the Washington-based lender said in a statement.

Loans from the World Bank typically carry cheaper interest rates and better repayment terms for the borrower compared with those that come with commercial financing.

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Once completed, the HRMIS will serve as an “integrated, government-wide, web-based” system that can improve analytics for workforce planning, career development, succession planning and training.

The new system will also establish a human resource certification system to standardize and increase the competence of human resource officers.

The system will be hosted on the government’s central cloud and data center infrastructure. The host will be designed to withstand and rapidly recover from a variety of disruptions, faults or attacks.

Better cash management

That includes risks brought about by natural disasters, which can periodically affect administrative records and disrupt government operations and public service delivery.

But equally, the World Bank said the HRMIS will allow budget officials to compute the outlay for personnel services based on the actual number of staff rather than plantilla positions.

That, in turn, can help improve the forecasting of salary expenses, increase transparency, and provide better information for managing payroll across the government.

This can be very useful at a time when the government is trying to plug a fiscal deficit that is capped at P1.54 trillion this year.

The World Bank said the improved payroll system can help the state manage cash better and cut personnel costs.

Data showed personnel services accounted for around 28 percent of the national government budget expenditure between 2020 and 2023.

In 2023, the country’s civil service included 2.18 million plantilla positions—almost two million of which were filled—and more than 830,000 employees hired through job orders and service contracts.

“Global experience shows that countries with high-quality public administrations, including a merit-based civil service, raise more revenues, deliver better services, and create a more supportive environment for inclusive growth,” said Zafer Mustafaoglu, WB country director for the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam.

The project will be piloted in around 40 agencies. The Civil Service Commission will implement the project, in partnership with the Department of Budget and Management and the Department of Information and Communication Technology.