Inside a Monetary Board member's office

Amid the ghost employee scandal hounding the Bangko Sentraling Pilipinas, The STAR ventures inside the offices of members of the Monetary Board to find out how many they're allowed to hire, and who.

- KEISHA TA-ASAN

The Monetary Board is the highest policymaking body of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and is responsible for the conduct of monetary policy and supervision of the financial system. Its chairman is the BSP governor, with five full-time members from the private sector and one member from the Cabinet.

Each member of the Monetary Board has an assigned office on the fifth floor of the BSP headquarters in Manila. The members serve six-year terms.

According to multiple sources, including past Monetary Board members (MBM), each board member is allowed to have up to 10 employees, including office staff. These employees are all co-terminus, whose entrance and continuity in the service is based on the six-year term of the MBM. These staff do not become permanent central bank employees.

A former MBM said members can even hire up to 50 employees for their office, as long as it’s within the allocated budget given to the board member.