The Commission on Audit (COA) has flagged Sorsogon City's hiring of 2,704 job order (JO) personnel who were paid P163.5 million in salaries in 2022 due to deficiencies in the hiring process.
In its annual audit report, COA said the most of the hired JO personnel were for the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) as street sweepers and garbage collectors.
It said the hired JO personnel also worked with the city’s Public Safety Office (PSO) as traffic enforcers and in the City Health Office (CHO) as midwives, nurses, and contact tracers.
At the same time, COA said that the city councilors each hired more than 10 JO personnel despite the existence of a permanent private secretary and a number of casual employees already assigned to them.
"Most of these JO personnel were assigned as barangay coordinators, data encoders, and public relations officers which were not related to the primary functions of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) as provided in Section 458 of Republic Act No. 7160 (Local Government Code) and despite the presence of the BAPAS (Barangay Affairs and Public Assistance Division)," the audit report said.
"Several drivers were also hired even though only five vehicles were issued to three of the SP Members," it said.
While the City Human Resources Management Office (CHRMO) limited the hiring of JO personnel for councilors to just 15 each, the COA said its audit found that these were "not really necessary and could be dispensed with without loss or damage" to the city government.
The COA also noted instances where the same position title had different rates and job descriptions.
Citing an example, the COA compared the rates and functions of the data encoders of two councilors. It said one was paid P350 per day, while the other was paid P500 daily. It also said the JO who was plaid P350 per day had more specific tasks such as encoding resolutions and ordinances; encoding program designs, correspondences, news articles, and other similar data as well as assisting typesetting of data concerning proposed resolutions and ordinances.
The JO who was paid P500 daily was assigned to coordinate with designated barangays regarding the implementation of programs and other matters concerning the residents of the barangay and perform other tasks as the need arises, it said.
"Aside from these, the program designs revealed that the hiring of JO personnel did not relate to a particular local project being implemented. Further, there were cases where the duties and responsibilities of prospective JO personnel were not indicated," the COA said.
It pointed out that city government had a vacancy of 66 plantilla positions as of Dec. 31, 2022. The CHRMO later updated that 30 out of the 66 vacancies have already been filled up, it said. However, it noted that 22 out of those 30 posts were filled up because of promotion and reappointment, so there are still 59 plantilla positions that are vacant as of March 31, 2023.
It blamed the city government’s missteps to the absence of a Human Resource Plan (HRP). While the CHRMO was able to craft one for permanent employees, the same cannot be said for JO personnel, it said. Even in prior years' audit observations, the COA had already recommended that the CHRMO formulate a plan.
"Had management prioritized the filling up of the vacant plantilla positions, continuous hiring of significant number of JO personnel could have been avoided," the COA said.
"Likewise, qualified and deserving individuals could not have been deprived of the benefits that a permanent employee receives and the city government of Sorsogon and the public could not have been deprived of the quality of service that could be expected from them," it added.
The COA recommended that the city government prioritize filling up the vacant plantilla positions and resort to hiring casual or emergency staff instead of hiring JO personnel.
"We reiterated our prior years’ recommendation and management agreed to require immediately the CHRMO to formulate a HRP and issue a uniform policy guideline on the hiring of JO personnel to determine properly the necessity of hiring JOs and to strengthen internal controls pertaining thereto," it added.