COA: Cost of Davao City's hiring of contractual employees balloons to almost P1B

Davao City's expenses for the salaries of thousands of its contractual workers have ballooned to almost a billion pesos in 2017 despite questions over the workers' specific duties three years ago, the Commission on Audit (COA) said in its annual report.

COA said the local government spent P938.7 million for the "other general services" of its job orders and contract of service (COS) personnel, or about 81 percent of the P1.16 billion allotted for contracted services.

The expenses were listed under the city's Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE).

According to COA, the amount is 16.8 percent higher compared to the P803.7 million allotted in the previous year, more than P183 million more compared to 2015, and an increase of more than P200 million from 2014 when COA flagged Davao City over the questionable hiring.

In its 2014 audit, COA said it cannot establish the necessity of keeping more than 11,000 contractual workers who had no specific duties while under the city's payroll.

"The necessity of hiring employees under contract of services and job orders could not be established due to absence of clear-cut hiring policies of the City of Davao, doubtful daily time records of most job orders assigned in the barangays and contracts were entered into without the specific functions and duties expected from employees," COA then said.

The COA also questioned why the workers were classified under the city government's "general services" allotment where expenditures for carpentry, plumbing, electrical and other similar services are recorded.

Davao City officials had assured COA that it will maintain a better internal control on the hiring of additional personnel and transfer the remunerations of the workers' salaries from General Services Account to Other Professional Account.

Then-Mayor and now President Rodrigo Duterte had refuted the COA report, saying there was no reason for the agency to question the hiring if the personnel have rendered their services.

Three years later, COA said Davao City, now led by Duterte's daughter Sara Duterte-Carpio, still maintains a total of 4,801 job orders and 7,653 COS personnel as of December 31, 2017.

Sara's administration also hired 4,848 job orders and 5,341 COS staff in 2016.

The administration of the elder Duterte, meanwhile, kept 4,760 job orders and 5,610 COS personnel in 2015. He also had 5,165 and 6,081 job orders and COS workforce, respectively, in 2014.

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV included the 2014 COA report in his plunder charges against Duterte at the Office of the Ombudsman, but it was terminated due to the lack of cooperation from the Anti-Money Laundering Council.  —KBK, GMA News