COA calls out San Fernando on overaged traffic enforcers

Jun A. Malig

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COA calls out San Fernando on overaged traffic enforcers
These traffic enforcers are 'beyond the compulsory retirement age,' but the capital city of Pampanga makes them 'work along the streets 12 hours a day and 7 days in a week with no day off'

PAMPANGA, Philippines – Some job order (JO) employees assigned to regulate the flow of vehicular traffic in the City of San Fernando are aged 65 and above, despite prohibitions under several laws and regulations.

This was disclosed by the Commission on Audit (COA) in its 2015 audit report.

“JOs aged over 65 [are] still assigned as traffic enforcers and exposed to extreme weather conditions,” the COA said, as it noted several other “lapses” in the hiring and appointment of some JO employees in the capital city last year.

COA reiterated Civil Service Commission (CSC) Resolution 020790, which prohibits the hiring of persons aged 65 and above as JO employees, except for consultancy services.

“A few were already beyond the compulsory retirement age. These are traffic enforcers who work along the streets 12 hours a day and 7 days in a week with no day off. Although they can take a day off once in a while, it is still subject for approval, otherwise, their performance evaluation might be affected,” the audit report stated.

Auditors recommended that the elderly JOs be transferred to offices or positions appropriate for their age and physical conditions, and limit the working days to only 5 days.

Missing ’employees’

The COA also noted that, although there were 619 JO employees in the records of the City Human Resources and Development Office, only 521 were found to be actually working for the city government.

“We performed a validation of the personnel employed under job order through actual head count. Based on the masterlist supplied by the Human Resources Development Office and as tallied from the payrolls, there were 619 JOs emplyed by the City at yearend, of which 521 or 84.17% were validated as to existence,” it said.

Rappler tried to get the comments of San Fernando Mayor Edwin Santiago through his social media account posted in the “City Mayor” page of the city’s official website since August 8, but has yet to receive a response.

Aside from the 98 seemingly missing employees – 15 of which are listed as assigned at the Office of the City Mayor and the City Council – government auditors also noted discrepancies in the signatures of some JOs.

“Comparison of the accomplishment reports, the daily time record, and the interview sheet revealed that signature in the interview sheet does not match the signature in the DTR and accomplishment report,” COA said.

“There were some who obviously did not accomplish the interview sheet themselves because the signature and the penmanship did not match with the signature taken by the Audit Team during the actual interview, denoting they may have no knowledge about their supposed functions,” the auditors added.

COA said some JOs claimed in the interview sheet that their tasks included performing research information, data gathering, and going to barangays (villages), but “no details were given about the particulars of the research work done and their purposes in their trips to barangays.”

Midwives and nurses

It also noted that the city government had been violating Section 77, Title III, of the Local Government Code of 1991 in hiring some registered midwives at the Rural Health Unit and birthing stations and registered nurses at the City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Division as mere JOs.

It said these employees are eligible to be permanent employees and that their tasks may be considered regular function necessary to the city, apart from the fact that they already exceeded 6 months of service in their current positions. 

COA recommended to the city government to stop hiring personnel whose functions do not contribute to the attainment of the city’s objectives, hire personnel only with identified job descriptions and actually needed by its offices, and reduce the number of JOs.

The audit commission also asked the human resources office “to submit explanation from offices where JOs’ signatures found to be different in the accomplishment reports and DTR.

COA also noted in its report that the City of San Fernando has not complied with the former’s recommendations in its 2014 audit report to address findings that the local government hired JOs who performed jobs different from their intended functions and “their use for personal purposes of some City officials,” including deployment of some JOs as house helpers.

Also not implemented by the city government in the 2014 COA recommendations was the strict monitoring of JOs’ attendance and validation of their accomplishments on periodic basis. – Rappler.com 

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