The Quezon City government maintained that no laws have been violated in the hiring of job contract employees under the payroll of the city’s legislative department.
Contracts for the hiring of the contractual in the payroll of the legislative department of the QC government are “in accordance with the limitations provided by the Civil Service Commission under Memorandum Circular Number 17 issued in 2002, according to city council members.
Councilors often resort to hiring of additional job order personnel for their emergency and special projects since they only have five itemized positions in their plantilla schedule.
Mayor Herbert Bautista denied a press report that there are ghost personnel listed in the city government’s payroll as contractual employees in the legislative department in 2010.
Bautista said that some members of the city council who are tossed against the issue perhaps failed to provide should-be attached job descriptions that the COA required.
“Posibleng nabigo lamang ang mga konsehal na maisumite ang listahan ng kanilang mga programa at mga tauhan dahil sa katatapos lang ng eleksyon noong isang taon,” Mayor Bautista said.
According to the mayor, the city government has vowed to deliver quality services to the transacting public starting from 8:00 in the morning until 5:00 in the afternoon daily to ensure that delays in every business dealings with the city government are avoided.
This year, the Bautista administration started implementing an electronic attendance (E-Attendance) system not only for frontline personnel but for all city- paid employees in order to ensure a fast and on-time quality service to the public.
All city paid employees, including those working at the Quezon City Council, are required to record their actual daily time-in and time-out through the E-Attendance to do away with issue of ghost hiring.
The Bautista administration is also implementing an automated and paperless transaction at QC Hall to save funds that can be somehow used on the poverty alleviation program of the city government.
On her part, Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte is doing all her best to address the issue of ghost employees within the legislative department and put all things in their proper perspective to ensure that the 26 city council members are not dimmed with issues that could affect their eagerness to perform their mandated task to address the prevailing concerns of the city government and its constituents.
Belmonte is very much willing to coordinate with the investigation of the COA regarding the issue of alleged ghost employment in the city council. Rico/ Precy/ Maureen Quiñones, PAISO
