MICS staff cry foul over poor ratings

CEBU, Philippines - About 60 employees assigned to the City Hall’s Management Information Computer Services (MICS) department complained against their former head of office for giving them poor performance ratings and rating himself “very satisfactory” despite his several absences.

The complainants who refer to themselves “All MICS Personnel” sent a letter to City Legal Officer Joseph Bernaldez and asked that the matter be settled. They said former MICS chief William Cris Artajo had “degraded our performance drastically which is beyond just and fair.”

The concerned MICS employees complained because according to them, Artajo incurred 21 days of absences from July to December last year. Despite this, Artajo still rated himself as having “very satisfactory” performance, something that they said is very questionable.

“If he used the Civil Service guidelines on himself too, he would have failed in the punctuality and attendance factor, among others, and he would not be very satisfactory,” the letter complaint reads.

Normally, all government personnel are required to fill out Performance Evaluation Forms every six months and are made to rate their own performance. Their supervisor or head of office then gives his or her own rating.

However, what has reportedly become a practice is that the employees allegedly also provide the rating supposedly to be provided by the supervisor, something that Artajo said he had to correct.

“Mokisi-kisi man dayon sila nga gitarong na nato sa pag-rate ang ilang performance. Matud pa bitaw sa mayor nga atong tul-iron ang hiwi,” Artajo said.

He explained that the 21 days mentioned in the letter complaint were leave of absences duly approved by his superiors.

He was assigned City Community Environment and Natural Resources Officer (CCENRO) just this year, thus, he was the one who rated the performance of MICS personnel for the second semester of last year.

Mayor Michael Rama said he will see to it that the matter will be resolved right away by the City Legal Office, particularly because the rating would affect the benefits of the concerned MICS employees.

The City Hall employees are expected to receive their performance bonus of P2,000 this month and they are afraid they would lose the same because of the rating. — (FREEMAN)