CEBU City Hall has about 1,000 plantilla positions that Mayor Michael Rama wanted filled before his term ends in June 2013.
But Juvy Morellos, head of the city’s Human Resource Development Office, said her office wasn’t certain if it could accomplish the mayor’s orders because of the employment ban, which the Commission on Elections would soon impose as part of its preparations for next year’s local elections.
Hiring of regular employees is not also easy because of Civil Service requirements.
Morellos said her office accepted 462 applicants for different plantilla positions in 2011. But they only managed to fill 72 positions.
The city government appropriated about P24 million for the salaries and wages of newly hired personnel in the 2011 budget.
But the lump sum appropriation was barely touched prompting the Local Finance Committee (LFC) to declare the appropriation as surplus funds.
Rama said in a separate interview that City Hall’s unfilled positions reached at least 1,000 because former mayor Tomas Osmeña showed his “insecurities” by refusing the employment of regular employees.
Osmeña, he said, lived with his policy that it was better to hire casual employees who can easily be terminated if they do not perform what is expected of them.
Rama said he wanted this mentality changed. /Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac