Starting this November: Cebu City to enforce new payroll system

Starting this November, the Cebu City government will implement a new payroll system boasting of shorter and simpler procedures.

Under the new scheme, the City Treasurer's Office will no longer issue checks but prepare instead a debit memo that would be approved and signed by the city administrator.

A debit memo, which is basically a request for cash, will be sent later to the bank where the city maintains its accounts to withdraw the needed money for payroll.

Also, the department heads would no longer be involved in the processing of the payroll except in issuing certification on the services that their respective employees have rendered including tardiness, undertime, and leaves within a given payroll period.

This is an improvement of the old scheme in which each employee would submit first his or her daily time record to the payroll master before forwarding this to the Human Resource and Development Office.

In the new system, the HRDO will be the one to sign the allotment obligation slip instead of the department heads.

Under government accounting procedures, the Allotment and Obligation Slip shall be used to record allotments received and to request for obligation charged against the allotments. It shall be prepared before processing the claim to ensure that funds are available for the purpose. - Mitchelle P. Calipayan