ERC needs to fill up 100 vacant positions

Published January 3, 2018, 10:01 PM By Myrna M. Velasco

https://business.mb.com.ph/2018/01/03/erc-needs-to-fill-up-100-vacant-positions/

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is targeting to fill up roughly 100 vacant positions in the agency’s table of organization, so it can deliver on its “zero backlog” commitment on the dispensation of pending cases.

ERC Chairperson Agnes T. Devanadera admitted that “personnel lack” at the ERC has been partly crippling them when it comes to stakeholders’ desired fast action on cases and the setting out of much-needed regulatory frameworks in the restructured electricity sector.

“I will fill up the positions. We were already given a budget for this by the DBM (Department of Budget and Management),” she said. Devanadera also cited the agency’s struggle when it comes to tapping people with knowledge about the power sector, more so, on the economic regulation sphere of the ERC’s function.

On the previous move of her predecessor on tapping contingent from the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) as well as on consultants, she qualified that it is an acceptable practice in government offices. Nevertheless, in an administration wherein politics had been tricky to master, that did not sit well with some relevant authorities.

“Qualified personnel from OSG are really deputized in government agencies if needed,” she stressed, while adding that if the beefed up workforce of the ERC would still not be enough, then she might also consider tapping new consultants for the Commission.

Yet for now, the biggest dilemma that must be resolved at the ERC shall be on its “leadership vacuum” due to the suspension order slapped against its four sitting Commissioners.

Devanadera realizes that, but she has her hands tied until the time that Malacanang would render a decision on the matter. Technically, the ERC was already experiencing “pseudo-work paralysis” starting in 2016, at the time that ‘internal conflicts’ perturbed work relationships at the leadership level of the Commission.

That resulted in the filing of cases against the former Chairman of the ERC, who was recently dismissed by Malacanang; and parallel raps of graft and corruption were also lodged against the other four Commissioners.

That then left a multi-billion dollar industry hanging in the balance, and just when they were expecting things to normalize already at the Commission, this another gridlock came and has been incapacitating the ERC once again.