City gov’t hires 20 top grads for  mayor’s team

The city government has recently hired 20 cum laude graduates to join the management team of Mayor Tomas Osmeña, following his aim to enforce changes in his administration.

The newly hired employees, who graduated from different courses, will compose the fifth batch of the Mayor’s Management Team. They will be trained and assigned different tasks to help the mayor implement changes at the City Hall and improve the city’s services.

“They will be implementing a lot of changes at the City Hall… The MMT has turned out to be very diligent, dedicated. Although some are shy, I take care of that,” Osmeña said.

The mayor has started hiring cum laude, magna cum laude graduates of four- to five-year courses or top notchers of board exams in 2005. There were 51 MMT recruits for the first batch and 30 for the second.

MMT employees are allowed to choose the area of work but in consideration with their field of expertise. They are then assigned to do a study, submit a written report, and, with the mayor’s approval, implement it.

Because of the competency and training these individuals have, Osmeña said many private companies are trying to pirate them from the city roster, with salary offers that thrice as much as they are receiving from the City Hall.

The mayor said that, considering the various disciplines of these recruits, he has been training them differently. “This is bragging but we are the only government unit that teaches our new recruit to innovate. We are the only local government worldwide that is doing this,” Osmeña said.

“Most innovations in the government are done from above, usually by senior veterans in the service. I gave up on veterans and decided to hire new and bright people and train them myself to do the changes,” he said.

Osmeña added that the new batch would be filling up the vacuum at the City Hall, and they will be assigned to sections such as processing of documents, payment of salaries, and processing of business permits, among others. — Wenna A. Berondo/RAE