Paulate, 3 others suspended over 'ghost' employees

MANILA, Philippines - Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales has ordered that Quezon City Councilors Roderick Paulate and Francisco Calalay Jr. be suspended for six months without pay while they are being investigated for allegedly maintaining “ghost” employees in the city government’s payroll.

In a July 5 order released yesterday, Morales said the two councilors as well as their liaison officers, Flordeliza Alvarez and Vicente Bajamunde, are to receive no pay during the period because of the administrative case filed against them by the anti-graft agency’s Field Investigation Office (FIO).

Paulate, Calalay, and their liason officers are facing charges of serious dishonesty, gross neglect of duty, grave misconduct, falsification of official documents, and conduct grossly prejudicial to the best interest of service.

Morales said graft investigators and prosecutors found “strong evidence of guilt” on the part of the respondents.

Paulate and Calalay’s “endorsement of these contractual employees to the legislative department and their attestation that these employees rendered services, tend to show that they knowingly or willfully used their positions in placing under the employ of the local government of Quezon City, several ghost employees, and receiving their salaries, wages and other emoluments for their own personal gain.”

As for Alvarez and Bajamunde, the anti-graft agency said they allowed themselves to be used by Paulate and Calalay when they collected and received the salaries, wages and other emoluments of these contractual ghost employees, who occupy positions like district coordinators, field investigators, and office aides.

The FIO, as the complainant in the cases, said the National Statistics Office, the National Bureau of Investigation, and barangay officials have no records of a number of the contractual employees.

According to the FIO, Calalay allegedly maintained 29 ghost employees from January 2010 to November 2010 while Paulate had 30 ghost employees from July 2010 to November 2010.

Calalay supposedly disbursed a total of P2,175,000 in wages during this period while Paulate disbursed a total of P1,125,000 “through the submission of spurious personal data sheets and payrolls.”