AT the National Youth Commission (NYC), ordinary things that most of us consider part of our daily existence are defined as work.
In fact, routine stuff like answering a phone call or an email is reported as “accomplishments.”
And the NYC, an attached agency of the Office of the President, actually coughed up P8.92 million last year to pay people for doing them. They were hired as contract of service (COS) or job order (JO) personnel.
Based on the 2020 report released by the Commission on Audit yesterday (May 11), the agency hired 59 people in 2019 and 51 in 2020.
While the additional manpower were listed down for “administrative/clerical works,” “technical functions,” and “training facilitators,” auditors said they performed activities that were only remotely related to their designation.
They comprised 62 percent of the entire workforce of the NYC, although basing on their supposed performance assessments, there was not much actual work involved.
“The accomplishment reports listed the same activities in every reporting period without comprehensible output. Most of the COS/JOs’ accomplishment reports had the same activities e.g., attended flag ceremony, updated and forwarded Individual Weekly Accomplishment Report, acknowledged email, answered phone calls, (and) submitted electronic Daily Time Record (DTR),” the audit team said.
Considering that the 51 hires were supposedly engaged for their “technical expertise,” auditors questioned the NYC why they were given jobs that appear merely clerical in nature.
The COA pointed out that the NYC hiring violated the guidelines set under the Joint Circular No. 1, it issued in 2017 together with the Civil Service Commission and the Department of Budget and Management which states that COS personnel must be “technical experts” who will work on special projects with specific timetables.
On the other hand, the hiring of JOs is supposed to be limited to emergency or intermittent work that are outside the functions of regular agency personnel including clearing of roads or canals and manual tasks like carpentry, plumbing, electrical installation and similar jobs.
Auditors also noted that the hiring took place even if most of the programs, activities and projects (PAPs) of the NYC were shelved because of the raging COVID-19 pandemic.
Since the NYC PAPs mostly require the attendance of big youth groups, they had to be cancelled in observance of safety and health protocols.
Unnamed agency officials claimed the hiring was partly to help provide jobs.
“Conducted interview disclosed that …their employment during the pandemic was also for humanitarian reason and to de-escalate the number of unemployed Filipinos during the pandemic,” the audit teams said.
While NYC called its action “humanitarian,” the COA called it imprudent spending of government funds.
The NYC management said it will implement measures to ensure “the alignment of performance against set objectives and targets.”
