Government officials and employees have until 30 May 2021 to file their 2020 Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN). 

The Civil Service Commission (CSC) issued Resolution No. 2100339 containing guidelines for the filing and submission of 2020 SALNs during exceptional circumstances, or when the country is placed under a state of calamity and/or emergency. 

The guidelines state that “all public officials and employees or those in affected area/s are given additional period of thirty (30) days from April 30 of such year within which to comply with the filing of the SALN.” Meanwhile, “all departments, agencies, and offices, or those in affected area/s are also given additional period of thirty (30) days from June 30 of such year within which to comply with the submission of the SALNs to the appropriate repository agency.” 

Online procedures 

Under the new guidelines, online oath-taking and filing or submission are allowed. 

The department, office, or agency concerned shall put in place processes and mechanisms to enable online oath-taking and the electronic filing of the SALN, to ensure that the SALN electronically filed are verifiable and authentic, and that it shall be protected under the provisions of relevant laws such as the Data Privacy Act of 2012. 

For online oath-taking, the Administering Officer and Declarant may interact through communication technology, provided that the identity of the Declarant is verified, the Declarant affirms the contents of his or her SALN to be true and correct, and the signing of the SALN is done within sight of the Administrative Office. The video communication may be recorded at their discretion. 

The Declarant has the option to affix his or her signature on an electronic SALN, or use wet ink signature on a physical document and scan it. This should then be transmitted electronically to the Administering Officer on the same day. The Administering Officer also has the option to sign electronically or use wet ink signature on the SALN, then transmit the same back to the Declarant.  

The Declarant may then send his or her SALN electronically to the human resource department/office of the concerned department, office, or agency in Portable Document Format or PDF. This shall be considered as a “duly executed SALN”. This shall also be considered “original”, and the printout thereof shall be considered as a “duplicate original”. 

Submission to repository agencies 

Agencies shall observe a uniformity rule in transmitting the collated SALNs to repository agencies, which may either be via physical or electronic submission, but not a combination of both. 

Physical submission of physical SALNs filed and printed copies of electronically submitted SALNs shall comply to existing guidelines on the filing and submission of SALNs. 

For electronic submission, agencies are allowed to transmit the electronic SALNs with the use of USB flash drive or disk storage, together with the required summary as provided under the rules. 

The proper repository agencies may establish their own rules in allowing the receipt of electronic copies of the SALNs provided they comply with the uniformity rule.

Review

Under the new guidelines, all heads of department, office, or agency, under these exceptional circumstances, are still required to establish procedures for the review of the SALNs to determine whether said statements have been submitted on time, are complete, and are in proper form in observance of CSC Resolution No. 1300455 dated 4 March 2013.