COA probes 3,000 QC ‘ghost’ workers

Were they “ghost” employees or legitimate job order workers?

The Commission on Audit (COA) has questioned the Quezon City government’s payment of more than P170 million in salaries to nearly 3,000 personnel in 2010.

According to the agency, the city’s 24 councilors each hired around 120 employees’ job order or contractual employees last year although there were no authorized projects for them to work on, contrary to the Local Government Code.

The COA also noted that the workers’ salaries were not paid directly to them but to authorized representatives of the councilors.

It added that the payroll for the job order or contractual personnel was not supported by accomplishment reports and time records which made it difficult to determine what kind of service they rendered.

“These noted deficiencies cast doubt on the propriety/validity of payrolls totaling P170.82 million as of Dec. 31, 2010,” the COA said.

According to the agency, when it called the attention of city government officials, it was informed that a mandatory screening process had been put in place to be conducted by a committee composed of representative from the offices of the vice mayor, majority floor leader and the personnel and budget departments.

The officials said this was to prevent the possibility of payroll padding and payments for absentee personnel or those who had already left the service. They also assured COA that wages would be paid directly to job order or contractual employees.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer tried to reach for comment Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte, the chairman of the city council, but she did not respond to repeated phone calls or text messages.

In its 2010 report on Quezon City, the COA noted that the 24 councilors were entitled to only five coterminous plantilla positions.  Last year, they each hired around 120 people on a job order basis for their sub-offices outside city hall.

The new hires, who worked as project head coordinators, executive officers, technical writers, project evaluators, field inspectors, client assistance officers, field coordinators, office aides and area coordinators, were paid from P5,000 to P18,500 each.

COA said the hiring was done in groups with each contract lasting for six months and renewable semi-annually.

All in all, the Quezon City government spent P170.82 million for their salaries.

The COA, however, said that the councilors executed job orders even in the absence of approved projects. Under the local government code, casual employees may be hired through job orders for local projects that have been authorized by the city council.

“Hence, there is no definite expected output to serve as [a] performance indicator and basis for payment,” it said.

It further noted that the job orders were also renewed even without the required expected outputs.

In addition, the COA said that the payroll, which was prepared in the city councilors’ offices, was supported only by a copy of the job order and a certification from the councilors that the contractual employees worked for at least 40 hours a week.

However, these were not backed up by accomplishment reports and time records, “hence, the validity and correctness of the claim for payment could not be ascertained,” it observed.

The COA also questioned why the money for their salaries did not go directly to the workers themselves. Instead, the payments were claimed by authorized representatives of the city councilors who had hired them. The payments were given to the representatives even if they did not have a special power of attorney from the claimants.

It also found that the actual duties of the contractual employees did not conform with the duties and functions stated for their designated positions. Instead, they performed clerical, administrative, messengerial and skilled work while others attended to the requests of the councilors’ constituents.