Approval of Clearance Before Going on Leave

April 14, 1971 REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER NO. 08-71 TO : All Department Heads, Regional Directors, Division Chiefs, Revenue District Officers and Others Concerned. SUBJECT : Approval of Clearance Before Going on leave. It has come to the attention of the Office that applications for clearance in connection with leaves of absences 30 days or more are submitted and processed after the leave has been enjoyed by the employee concerned. This renders the clearance practically useless and may lead to the overpayment and over-remittance of deductions from the employees' salaries. To rectify this situation and in order to eliminate the possibility of overpayment of the salaries of employees going on leave of absence who request the commutation of their pay, it is hereby directed that applications for clearance must be processed and approved on or before the day the employee's leave becomes effective. The Accounting Division should immediately be furnished copies of the approved clearance and leave of absence so that all accountability can be correctly determined before Payment. It has also been observed that some employees absent themselves from office for indefinite periods of time without filing any application for leave of absence. The Chief of office should immediately report such cases to the Deputy Commissioner for Administration for appropriate action, attention in this connection being drawn to the last paragraph of Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 32-68 on leaves of absences, quoted as follows: "This Office will hold administratively responsible the immediate supervisors and the chiefs of office for abetting any infraction by their subordinates of the leave laws, rules and regulations, particularly those above-quoted. Under no circumstances shall the immediate supervisor or chief of office approve or allow the application for a sick leave of absence filed one week or more after the employee has incurred absences from work or a vacation leave not filed in advance of the date of his vacation. In such case, the Chief of office must report the matter immediately to the Deputy Commissioner for Administration for appropriate disciplinary action." cd The non-submission of the application for sick or vacation leave of absence or unreasonable delay in forwarding them to the National Office has, in many cases, given rise to overpayments of salaries which are illegal or indicative of gross inefficiencies. It is reiterated that supervisory officials who do not report absences of their subordinates for more than a week without applications for leave of absence, will be administratively charged and will be relieved of their supervisory duties. It is necessary that supervisory officials should check the daily attendance of their employees and should always require submission of application for leave of absence by those who have been absent. In many cases, employees who have been absent but have not filed applications for leave appear on record to be present, which constitutes falsification of public documents. Strict compliance with this Memorandum Order is enjoined. MISAEL P. VERA Commissioner of Internal Revenue