Sec 35.3 IRR of RA 9266 "civil liability pay"

What is your view on the “civil liability pay” under Section 35.3 of the IRR of RA 9266 which says “the government architect-of-record shall collect an incentive pay to cover civil liabilities in the equivalent amount of 1.5% of the project cost of every project, provided it shall not exceed 50% of his annual salary which shall be paid upon full completion of the project”?

In view of the above provision, which of the following statements is correct?

1. The Architect of record shall be paid only once, regardless of the number of projects in a year, the total liability pay for all projects when computed, shall not be more than one half of his annual salary; or

Example: 
4 office buildings each with a P50M Project Construction Cost
PF for office buildings 7% = P3.5M
@1.5% = P52,500.00 or total of P210,000.00 for the 4 projects
Annual salary of government architect: P300,000.00 (50% is P150,000.00)
Maximum payment to government architect shall only be P150,000.00 instead of P210,000.00

 2. The architect of record shall be paid for every project, and the maximum amount to be paid for every project shall not exceed one half of the annual salary… and all projects completed within the year, shall be computed separately. Thus if the architect completed four office projects, and each with a project cost of P60M, the architect would collect 4 payments. 

Example: 
4 office buildings each with a P50M Project Construction Cost
PF for office buildings 7% = P3.5M
@1.5% = P52,500.00 or total of P210,000.00 for the 4 projects
Annual salary of government architect: P300,000.00 (50% is P150,000.00)
Maximum payment to government architect shall be P52,500.00 (which is less than 50% of the annual salary) or a total of P210,000.00.


I think that the civil liability pay should be given for every project, because the responsibility and liability by the architect is for every building. If you are tasked to design and manage four (4) projects simultaneously in different locations of the country, it also means that the responsibility are for each and every project. Therefore, the civil liability pay is given for every project, and not the sum of the four projects.

What do you think?

Posted in: ProfPrac