Mandaue asks COA for reconsideration

CEBU, Philippines - The Mandaue City government wants the Commission on Audit to reconsider its ruling disallowing the incentives given to the city’s job order employees in December 2011.

In 2011, 2,026 job order employees of city hall each received P10,000 in Performance Enhancement Incentives while the Clean and Green Program and the Barangay Health Nutrition workers received P4,000 each.

But COA issued a notice of disallowance over the release of such incentives for it violated Department of Budget and Management (DBM) budget circular 1020-3.

However, Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes and the city council have appealed COA’s ruling because they felt the employees deserved the incentives on the ground that they were paid below minimum wage.

Lawyer Jamaal James Calipayan said it’s the prerogative of the city to give incentives to job-order employees considering that the city can spare a portion of its budget for performance bonus.

City administrator James Abadia also pointed out that the giving of the PEI was also legal since the release was covered by a city ordinance.

Abadia also said there was no regulation from COA regarding the disallowance of job order employees.

It was learned that job order employees at city hall continue to receive a notice of disallowance from COA.

Some of these job order employees who received the PEI in 2011 no longer work at city hall.