COA questions Davao City's P677M payroll for casual hires

The Davao City government spent over P600 million last year for thousands of personnel hired without contracts or agreements and whose job descriptions were virtually unknown, state auditors said in a report.

Citing records from the city's Human Resources Management Office (HRMO), the Commission on Audit (COA) said 11,000 extra people were placed in the city’s payroll in the first half of 2012 and another 11,024 in the second half.

These non-permanent employees, which cost the city government P677.71 million, were assigned to various departments of the city government and different barangays. However, the nature of services they were supposed to render were unknown since none of them signed any contract or agreement.
 
The COA noted that the names, designations, office assignments and rates per day are stated on a Master List approved by the city mayor.
 
Unable to do a thorough inspection because of the huge number of personnel involved, the COA audit team only conducted a random sampling on 5,832 personnel hired under the Mayor’s Office and another 2,377 under the Barangay Community and Cultural Affairs Division (BCCAD).
 
In its findings, the audit team reported that out of 275 people assigned to the Office of the Chief of Staff to the city mayor, only 59 were present. The rest were supposedly on “field duty” although no pass slips were presented.
 
COA also said not one of 82 barangay auxiliary workers and purok volunteers showed up for validation as they were supposedly on duty in various barangays although no deployment orders were submitted.
 
In contrast, every single one of JO and contractual people working ofr the City Social Services and Development Office, the City Assessor’s Office and the City Civil Registrar were all physically accounted for and validated.
 
“(T)he monthly payrolls were not supported with corresponding accomplishment reports. It was learned that personnel were not required to prepare the same. Likewise, certification that the services or activities cannot be provided by regular or permanent personnel of the agency was not submitted,” the report noted.
 
COA criticized the city’s employment system for laxity in monitoring productivity and accountability under the “equal work for equal pay principle.” It also insisted that city department heads and barangay officials to prepare deployment orders and document the assignment of personnel to monitor their whereabouts.
 
In addition, they were required to submit assessments of accomplishments for personnel assigned to them for use in evaluating renewal of services.
 
COA said the Davao City government agreed to fully comply with the audit recommendations. — KBK, GMA News