Tabuk City Vice Mayor Bernard Glen Dao-as has reiterated his appeal to the members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod to reconsider increasing their Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) after the office was only allotted P1 million funds for the fiscal year 2022.
According to the vice mayor, the proposed budget for casual employees under the Office of the Sangguniang Panlungsod has been removed from the budget prompting him to ask for consideration for the sake of the casual employees of SP who will be affected, including the casual employees of the Vice Mayor’s Office.
He said that the removal of the proposed budget allocated for the hiring of casual employees in the Sangguniang Panlungsod is tantamount to the abolishment of said office.
A letter from Dao-as has been presented by the Committee on Appropriations to the City Budget Officer, City Internal Audit Officer during their Committee meeting, of which explanation was then provided to the members of the Committee.
Councilor Castor “Baby” Cayaba, in a committee report during the Regular Session on Thursday, November 18, relayed that according to the City Budget Office, the “Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) as a collegial body, the whole budget of the SPO should be treated or viewed as one aggregate body.”
Response of concerned offices during Committee Meeting of Committee on Appropriations
Further, the committee explained that ‘the SPO as a collegial body works reciprocally and uncompetitive – sharing their expertise on legislative matters including resources, time and budget’.
As reported, ‘the speakers also explained that members of the council have their own respective sectoral/committee assignments and perform their roles, conduct research, conduct sectoral meetings/consultations and transform them into legislation. They added that what is left for the Vice Mayor is to preside.
Explanation for the non-inclusion of salaries and wages of casuals under SP
As to the issue on the budget for casual employees, it was explained that ‘due to various Audit Observation Memoranda (AOM) from the Commission on Audit since 2013 citing the City LGU of hiring numerous job order employees, casual and Contract of Services doing clerical jobs supposed to be done by regular employees. COA, they said, also noted that JOs and casuals are not hired based on the priority needs of the concerned office.
Also, the ‘management then issued Executive Order No. 58 dated August 1, 2020, setting control and guidelines in the hiring of casuals, JOs, and the contract of service employees of the city government. DBM and COA, they added, have also issued circular setting rules and regulations governing COs and JOs in the government’.
Job Orders, they said, work for intermittent or emergency jobs which are only undertaken in a short period of time and for a specific piece of work, making it improper for SPO to execute contracts with JOs, and that only the executive body can do this.
Further, they said the 66 regular employees under the SPO which is 66 is already enough to deliver functions of the SPO as a collegial body.
VM Dao-as wonders, believes this is politics
In an interview, Vice-Mayor Dao-as said that the budget cut is a punishment against him for exposing corruption at the City Hall. He said the Vice-Mayor's Office during the time of former Mayor Ferdinand Tubban was not given a measly 1 million peso budget.
The budget shall certainly cripple the services of the Vice-mayor's Office, he added, saying "Nu i-compare tayo ti present administration ken previous panggep iti panag-budget makita tayo ti dakkel nga diperensiya. Dapat koma ket dumakdakkel ti budget ta dumakdakkel ti gastos. Ngem ammo tayo met ti gandat da. This all but politics."
Dao-as said this is one of the many reasons why he wanted to run for mayor, to stop the injustice, corruption, and many anomalous government transactions under the present administration.
.png)
Comments