THE Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) is coordinating with the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for the possible hiring of more regular employees in lieu of contractual workers for the department, Communications Undersecretary Kris Ablan said yesterday.
The Commission on Audit (COA) has flagged the PCOO for spending P70.6 million in hiring 375 contractual workers in 2020, which is more than the 114 regular employees of the department.
Ablan, in a radio interview, said the PCOO had requested DBM to add plantilla positions — a government-approved listing of positions in a governmental agency — to the department and had coordinated with the CSC for the conduct of special eligibility examinations for contractual employees who are qualified to work full time in government.
He said DBM had allotted 34 plantilla positions to the PCOO while CSC is expected to conduct the eligibility exams within the month.
Ablan said the 375 contractual employees were hired by the PCOO to augment the department’s personnel, especially the technical positions for specific projects and programs such as the information drive for the vaccination program of government, the information drive on the national identification system, the pre-state of the nation address town hall meetings, the regional public briefings, the regular PCOO programs such as the Laging Handa network briefing and public briefings.
He said the contracts are usually for three months, six month and one year.
He said only 305 contractual employees remain at the PCOO and this number may still go down after a review to determine whose contracts had ended.
Ablan said the contractual employees that include graphic artists, videographers, editors, directors, and colorists were needed to handle some technical aspects and produce contents for presentations and information material for certain projects and programs. He said the PCOO also had to hire more people to supplement the demand from many government programs such as the information drive and documentaries for certain projects from different agencies.
“We had more projects in production and creatives because we took over the programs of other agencies,” he said, adding the contractual employees receive an average of P15,500 per month.
