COA tells Naga to limit job order workers

CEBU, Philippines - The Commission on Audit has advised the City Government of Naga to limit hiring job order workers after it spent a total of P28,837,298.82 for 385 contracts last year.

As per contract, the workers were hired purportedly to do utility/janitorial services and/or provide labor for projects.

However, in its 2012 report, COA said some of the workers were made to perform supervisory and technical functions, which are supposed to be performed by regular employees. This reportedly is contrary to sound internal control system and Civil Service Memorandum Circular No. 26, s. 1997.

COA noted that the number of workers hired far exceeded the needed work force.

Some workers were doing technical jobs such as inspection of projects and deliveries, inspection of business establishments for tax purposes, assessments, review of documents, collections and such other functions which should be done by regular and career employees in the civil service.  These were disclosed in the Statement of Duties and Responsibilities submitted by the Human Resources Management Office (HRMO).

“The practice of hiring Job Order workers in excess of the actual manpower needs and allowing some of them to perform functions duplicating the work of regular employees which may be classified as supervisory and technical in nature and which also involved collection and custody of funds, did not only result in the wastage of government funds but also indicated a weak internal control system,” the audit report reads.

During the exit conference, Mayor Valdemar Chiong explained that there are tasks in the city such as the operations of the Enan Chiong Activity Center (ECAC) that are not core functions of the local government, thus, the city does not find it practical to assign regular employees to do the job.

However, he told COA that he has been planning to promote to regular employment status those skilled and qualified JO workers as soon as the city is able and if the law would allow.

COA recommended that the officials concerned limit the hiring of JO workers to actual number needed for the normal operations of the city government.

JO workers should not be allowed to supervise, manage, or exercise control over regular employees.

“They should not perform functions which are technical in nature or which involve the handling of funds since they are not bonded,” the audit report said.

Records show that JOs were distributed to the offices of the mayor, 225; Sangguniang Bayan, 6; assessor, 20; traffic, 24; city social welfare, 22; engineering, 4; market, 23; city division, 10; city health, 21; and lying-in clinic, 30. (FREEMAN)