MANILA (PNA) –- Administration senator Ralph Recto revealed on Tuesday that performance bonuses, overtime pay and consultancy fees of government-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (PSALM) Corp. were being inserted as part of National Power Corporation's (Napocor) unpaid debts now amounting to P470.865 billion.

Recto said the PSALM bonuses, salaries, overtime pay and professional fee of consultants reaching P217.3 million “were now part of the Napocor’s stranded costs that would be paid or recovered through power rate adjustments.”

”These were among the reasons why the power rates have never gone down nine years after the Republic Act 9136 or Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) was passed to stop the bleeding of the Napocor by privatizing its power assets,” he said.

The EPIRA law created the PSALM and tasked it to privatize Napocor’s power assets and use the proceeds to pay off its debts.

Recto said PSALM has recently petitioned the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to allow it to pass on to electricity consumers some P80.9 million “performance incentive” bonus that it bestowed to its employees.

”This was on top of the P80.5 million salaries for its 165 personnel; P18.4 million night differential pay for the trading personnel manning the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) and another P118 million for the professional fees of consultants hired by PSALM,” Recto said.

Recto said a cursory reading of the EPIRA law yields no mention of any provision prescribing that stranded debts will include employee compensation or bonuses.

Records show that as of May this year, the government has already privatized 25 operating/generating power facilities or 91.8 percent of the total 3,778.23 megawatt total rated capacity of Napocor’s generating assets in the Luzon and Visayas grids, which translated to proceeds of 10 billion US dollars (roughly P470 billion).

Recto said the law that created PSALM never mentioned that bonuses, overtime pay and even professional fees should also be charged against the multi-billion stranded contract costs of Napocor.

”This is the reason why power rates remain high amid the promise of EPIRA because every time PSALM feels generous to its top executives and personnel, we’re the ones who have to pay for it through power rate adjustments,” he explained.

The senator said Napocor’s stranded debts along with its stranded contract costs will have to be shouldered by power consumers until PSALM’s corporate life expires in 2025.

Recto, the new Senate ways and means committee chairman, has filed a Senate resolution asking the Senate energy committee, now headed by senator Serge Osmeña III, to look into the series of power rate hikes reportedly due to the ballooning stranded debts of Napocor.