QC: Reforms in place vs ‘ghost’ workers

The Quezon City Council has implemented reforms in the hiring of job order workers to ensure that there are no “ghost” employees in the city government’s payroll.

Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte told the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Thursday that the reforms were taken after the Commission on Audit (COA) questioned the payment of more than P170 million in salaries to around 3,000 job order or contractual personnel last year.

Based on the COA report, the city’s 24 councilors each hired around 120 employees in 2010 although there were no authorized projects for them to work on, a violation of the Local Government Code.

The auditing agency also noted that the salaries of the 3,000 workers were not released directly to them but to authorized representatives of the councilors who were not armed with a power of attorney issued by the employees themselves.

According to Belmonte, representatives from her office, the office of the city council’s majority floor leader and personnel and budget departments now conduct a mandatory screening of job order employees.

“We have conducted a personal interview or screening of workers to make sure that there are no ghost employees in the city council,” she said.

Belmonte, however, pointed out that the COA report did not specifically describe the 3,000 job hire or contractual workers as ghost employees.

“There was no indication there. It does not automatically mean that these are ghost workers. Perhaps the attachments to the job descriptions were lacking,” she said.

At the same time, Belmonte clarified that not all of the 24 city councilors hired 120 workers each last year.

“Not all of them hired that [many employees] because the hiring depends on the projects of each councilor,” she said.

According to her, the city council employs only 37 contractual workers, five coterminous employees and several job order personnel.

She also explained that most of the time, those employed by the city council do field work which is why their salaries are collected by an authorized representative armed with a power of attorney.

“We welcome the COA report. Our goal next year is for us not to be included in it,” Belmonte said. Julie M. Aurelio