MANILA, Philippines — The number of contractual personnel at the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) is down to 305 as some of the agency's programs have been completed, an official said Sunday.
The Commission on Audit (COA) has questioned PCOO's hiring of 375 contractual personnel last year, noting that the agency had spent more than P70 million for their salaries.
According to COA, the PCOO — the government's lead communication arm — had no written policy for tapping the services of the contract of service workers. No justification was given for the hiring of the personnel, the state auditor added.
PCOO Assistant Secretary Kris Ablan said the agency had to hire the contract of service workers because it needed additional work force for the communication campaigns of the COVID-19 vaccination and national ID programs.
"Some of the programs have been completed so the number has decreased. From 375, it's now just 305 but we are still reviewing the contracts," Ablan told radio station dzBB.
Ablan, who oversees the finances and administration of PCOO, said the number of contractual workers may still go down. He said the bulk of the personnel for the creative and production teams were hired late last year and early this year.
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Existing workers of government media outlets could not be tapped for the communication campaigns because they were already busy with their respective tasks including the Laging Handa public briefing and shows related to the President's state of the nation address, he added.
"We needed to supplement our personnel because we had additional projects," Ablan said.
Ablan assured the public that there are existing measures to prevent the hiring of ghost employees, including the submission of the outputs of workers.
"They need to submit a means of verification, the hyperlink to their outputs should be there so we can see that they are real persons, that they are not ghost employees," the PCOO official said.
Ablan said the salaries of contractual workers depend on their skills and expertise but if the P70 million spent on their salaries is divided by the number of the personnel, the average pay would be P15,550 per month. Their contracts may last for three months, six months or one year.
Ablan said the PCOO has requested the budget department for plantilla items so some of the contract of service personnel could become regular employees. He added that the budget department has so far granted 34 plantilla items to the PCOO.
"We also have contract of service workers who are not yet CS (civil service) eligible so we worked with the Civil Service Commission to conduct a special exam this July for the COS (contract of service) workers who want to become regular (employees)," Ablan said.