P677M spent on Davao hiring binge

ONE OF Sara Duterte’s passions—riding big bikes. PHOTO FROM SARA’S FACEBOOK PAGE

Former Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte went on a hiring spree in the last full year of her term as she signed up 11,000 temporary workers to six-month work contracts, including 110 consultants employed by her office without any proof to show that the personnel deserve their wages.

This was revealed in a Commission on Audit (COA) report on Davao City’s 2012 financial operations released earlier this month that showed that the Duterte administration could provide only a master list of the individuals hired, their fixed wages and positions and the funding source for their salaries but not official contracts or accomplishment reports about their actual service.

The former mayor said in a text message: “I can’t comment. I haven’t read the COA report.”

In the report, Duterte signed the job orders and contracts for 11,000 individuals in the first half of last year  and 11,024 in the second half last year, spending more than P677 million in government funds for extra wages on what the COA described as redundant work which could be performed by regular employees.

Without any monitoring report to work on, the COA conducted a sample audit of the casuals supposedly working in Duterte’s office and the Barangay Community and Cultural Affairs Division.

The COA said only 59 of the 275 casuals deployed to Duterte’s office were present (management claimed the rest were out on field work  but it did not show any pass slips as proof); none of the 82 barangay auxiliary workers and community volunteers showed up during the validation process (they were said to be working in other barangays but management could not give any deployment plan); and not one of the casuals surveyed was required to submit an accomplishment report which should have served as the basis for their wages.

“The principle of equal work for equal pay is not operational as accountability of hired personnel in terms of producing outputs in return for their wages was not given emphasis or consideration,” the COA said.

“The nonsubmission of accomplishment reports creates doubts as to whether or not funds were used judiciously and conscionably with due regard against waste through improper disposition,” it said.

The city hall human resources management claimed that the heads of each department were monitoring the attendance of the casuals but the COA was adamant that without an accomplishment report, there was no saying that hiring 11,000 people was necessary and advantageous to the government.

Aside from tightening its monitoring, the COA urged the city hall to conduct a comprehensive review of the city’s hiring policy, “with due regard to the actual needs of the office and the availability or nonavailability of such kind of services among the regular employees.”