Mandaue government assures payroll improvement

CEBU, Philippines — The Mandaue City government has assured employees that payroll processing will significantly improve once operations stabilize amid the ongoing transition.

City Administrator Atty. Gonzalo Malig-on gave the assurance following reports that the payroll for Mandaue City’s job order and contract of service employees had been delayed for nearly two months.

Malig-on said they have already formulated a solution to resolve the payroll delays.

First, he said that each department must improve the way they prepare their payroll documents.

He explained that many of the delays stem from errors made by the staff themselves during payroll preparation, which often leads to repeated corrections and resubmissions.

Malig-on emphasized the need to properly train those handling payroll, especially now that the city is undergoing a transition to a new administration.

Secondly, he noted that the City Accounting Office has admitted primary responsibility for the payroll delays.

Malig-on explained that a recurring issue at City Hall is that when a payroll list contains multiple names, even just one or two errors—such as a misspelled name—can cause the entire document to be returned to the department, resulting in significant delays in processing.

“That will take another time,” said Malig-on.

Malig-on noted that under the previous system, any error, no matter how minor, would result in the entire payroll being sent back to the department for correction.

He explained that even if there are 100 names on the payroll, the entire list would be returned for correction if just one name had an error, causing delays for everyone involved.

“That’s unfair,” said Malig-on.

However, this time the new administration reached an agreement with the Accounting Office that instead of returning the entire payroll, only the names with errors will be removed and processed separately through vouchers.

Malig-on emphasized that the remaining names on the payroll will continue to be processed without any delays caused by the errors.

“Hopefully kung ma stabilize na dili na mahitabo nga buwan-buwan nga ma delay,” said Malig-on.

However, Malig-on asked for the understanding of City Hall employees, especially since the new administration of Mayor Thadeo Jovito “Jonkie” Ouano is still in transition.

He mentioned that there are changes to the signatories and the personnel responsible for preparing the payroll.

Malig-on requested that employees allow the administration one to two months to fully stabilize the payroll system.

Malig-on assured that once the operations are fully stabilized, payroll processing will significantly improve in speed compared to before.

Malig-on noted that Mayor Ouano has ordered payroll processing to be completed in half the time it took under the previous administration.

“So kung sauna two months, it should be one month or less this time,” said Malig-on.

With their intervention, Malig-on said that if there are errors or missing requirements to an employee, there might still be slight delays, but not everyone on the payroll will be affected. — (FREEMAN)