THE province of Sarangani has been spending huge sums on job order (JO) and contract of service (COS) hires since 2015, costing the provincial coffers a whopping P501.5 million over the last five years.
This was revealed in the 2019 report released by the Commission on Audit (COA) last August 6 which recommended a review of the organizational structure of the provincial government “to avoid unnecessary hiring of JO/COS workers.”
Auditors noted that the hiring of contractual manpower was on top of 669 personnel on the provincial government’s payroll holding plantilla positions. Of this, 579 are regular while 90 are either coterminous or elected.
However, the COA discovered that those who are holding plantilla positions only comprised 27 percent of the manning complement of the provincial government. The other 73 percent was represented by 1,812 JO/COS hires.
Salaries for JO/COS hires are paid out of the “General Services” account under the Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) while the compensation for regular and elected/coterminous employees fall under the Personnel Services (PS).
According to the tracking of expenditures by the COA, Sarangani spent P73.2 million on contractual hires in 2015; P83.17 million in 2016; P90 million in 2017; P115.01 million in 2018; and P140.09 million in 2019.
On the other hand, payment of salaries and benefits for plantilla workers amounted to P385 million in 2018 and P423 million in 2019.
The COA warned provincial officials that under RA 7160 or the Local Government Code, JO/COS workers are not supposed to render work longer than six months.
In the case of Sarangani, many of the contractual hires have been simply renewed over and over which means their services have been going for years.
“The continued employment of JO/COS workers in the provincial government for period exceeding six months is contrary to the provisions of the law and results in lack of social protection and inequality of benefits of such workers,” the COA said.
Likewise, the audit team said the system contradicts national policies on labor and public services.
The provincial government did not contest the observations but claimed that hiring additional workers is necessary because the governor has many advocacies and there is a need for the provincial government to “absorb as many unemployed individuals in the community to ease unemployment.”
The COA recommended a review of the current staffing pattern to determine if additional plantilla positions should be created subject to the approval of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan.
