AS of 2022, the Tacloban City government had 860 plantilla positions of which only 619 were filled up, leaving 241 positions vacant or 28 percent of available permanent posts.
But instead of filling up the vacancies, the local government incurred millions in expenses and hired 308 casual employees and 1,315 workers on job order (JO) status who were assigned to different departments.
State auditors found that 157 JOs were assigned to perform functions and duties that were supposed to be done by regular personnel.
This was contrary to the Joint Circular No. 1 s, 2017 of the Civil Service Commission (CSC), the Commission on Audit (COA) and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) which limits JO work to “pakyaw” or intermittent jobs like road-clearing, de-clogging canals and waterways, and as additional manpower for disaster response as well as other menial work, including carpentry, plumbing, and electrical installation.
The audit team said the city would have saved money had it limited its hiring to what was only necessary.
“The practice of hiring JO workers in excess of the actual manpower needs or hiring several personnel with the same functions in an office, which could be done by one or two workers only, resulted in JOs performing works of regular personnel, redundancy of functions and incurrence of wage expenses,” it pointed out.
Worse, the city government short-changed JO workers on their pay based on the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) rules.
Records showed the regional wage board approved a P50 increase in daily minimum wage in Region 8 (Eastern Visayas) in two tranches of P25 each.
The first tranche was supposed to be paid effective June 27, 2022 but the city kept the wages of the JOs at the old level of P325 per day. It only complied with the new rate of P350 per day in October 2022, or three months late.
“Inquiry was made with Human Resource Management and Development Officer (HRMDO) and disclosed that the daily minimum wage increase was not implemented immediately due to unavailability of funds,” auditors said.
They reminded the city government that this was unfair to JO workers who were deprived of their fair earnings particularly considering the current cost of living in the region.
The city HRDMO said Mayor Alfred Romualdez has already approved the 2023 Recruitment Plan which will speed up the hiring of personnel to fill up the vacant plantilla positions.
