THE Philippine Sports Commission will further review the performance, retrain and, to the extent possible, retain more than 30 of its contractual employees as it attempts to streamline its staff, making it a more efficient organization and attuned to addressing the needs of its stakeholders.
In a press conference held last week, PSC chairman Richard Bachman and executive director Paulo Tatad explained the rationale for the move, adding that the PSC board unanimously approved a three-month extension for those affected while their performance audit continues.
After thoroughly studying the present set-up of the government sports agency, Bachmann observed that there was a duplication of functions “in different levels, so we are attempting to fix hat now. So far, we have resolved these issues in the finance and procurement departments.
“We are now moving on to the other departments led by ED Tatad.”
For his part, Tatad said that before they took steps in reorganizing the PSC personnel “we looked at the legal basis for making such changes to the extent that the Commission on Audit, Civil Service Commission, Department of Budget and Management and even the Department of Labor and Employment will allow.”
Tatad noted that the PSC has around 300 working personnel, with just slightly over a third of them plantilla or organic to the agency, while the rest are contractual, who were hired by the previous administrations.
He pointed out some “redundancies” or duplication of functions among the staff, so they wanted to avoid square-peg-in-a-round hole situations in the various departments of the PSC.
Bachmann said those who might be laid off due to the changes would be retrained to learn new skills and reassigned to other duties within the PSC, revealing that he has assigned his office staff, Michelle Balunan, who heads PSC training and development unit, in handling the issue.
The PSC chief also acknowledged that there was a need for more permanent and qualified personnel in the PSC, revealing that he asked the DBM in creating more jobs for the agency.
PSC sources said that PSC board’s decision to give the three-month extension to the contractual employes affected was the prudent and considerate thing to do in the wake of the numerous events and activities it will be involved in the remaining six months of 2024.
Besides supporting the national athletes in the Paris Olympics and Paris Paris Paralympics, it is involved in the ongoing Philippine Reserve Officer Training Corps Games, the Indigenous People’s Games and for the forthcoming Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Bangkok, Thailand Games in November.
It will also be heavily involved in organizing the National Para Games in Marikina in November plus Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines East Asean Growth Games and the Batang Pinoy National Games that will be held one after the other in Puerto Princesa, Palawan in December.
