Mayor re-launches management team

CEBU, Philippines - Aiming to cut down on bureaucratic processes at Cebu City Hall, Mayor Tomas Osmeña is welcoming those degree holders who graduated with honors and bar or board topnotchers to apply as members of Mayor's Management Team (MMT).

In a press conference yesterday, Osmeña announced the start of hiring of the city's MMT which he started over 20 years ago but was stopped during the administration of former mayor Michael Rama in 2010.

"Because we had very good experiences. We hire people without previous exposure to government. So, they don't have any set ideas, they don't' have any habits, no fixed perception of government," he said.

Osmeña said he will personally train those accepted applicants together with other MMT graduates like City's Human Resource and Development Office head Marie Velle Abella.

The mayor said the city was cited by the Ateneo de Manila University Graduate Business School as one of the 10 best models of management in the whole Philippines.

Osmeña said many of the MMT graduates are now earning a lot of money because of the jobs they became qualified for after training.

"They are specifically trained to enter into bureaucracy and to get any process and they will cut it short. In other words, they are trained to be experts in cutting red tape," he said, adding that the training can be used by the applicants anywhere they may end up.

Osmeña said one of the outputs of the previous MMT was the improvement of the processing of the renewal of business permits from two weeks to 15 minutes.

"The Mayor's Management Team was a program I started more than 20 years ago that consisted of a highly selected (cum laude graduate or above only) group of people whose sole purpose was to streamline the functions of government and constantly find a better way," he said on his official Facebook account.

Cebu City is the only one in the whole country with an MMT program, he said.   The program's tagline, "There's always a better way", will be adapted for the accepted applicants.

After the training, Osmeña said members of MMT will be assigned to offices that have complicated processes like the City Treasurer's Office.

"That's one of the strongest points of my previous administrations because we streamlined the processes of the government. Now, we have to start again," he said.

Those interested may contact Abella at City Hall's HRDO.

"We will begin screening applications and those who pass the interviews will begin training early February. Those who perform best during training will be chosen as MMT's. Without exception, everyone who makes it through training and becomes an MMT is more than qualified to a higher-paying job in the private sector," Osmeña said on his official Facebook page. (FREEMAN)