City Hall to abolish ‘redundant’ offices

CEBU, Philippines — At least 10 "redundant" offices at the Cebu City Hall are expected to be abolished this year in line with the implementation of the rightsizing program.

Henry Tomalabcad, Cebu City Government's Resource Development Office (HRDO), said this would involve merging offices with duplicate functions.

The Rightsizing Program was first introduced during the administration of former mayor Michael Rama, which is aimed at reducing the number of employees to 3,000.

In line with this, a massive regularization of employees was carried out to fill-in vacancies in the plantilla positions.

When Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia, who then served as vice mayor ascended to local chief executive, he decided to continue the program.

Tomalabcad said his office has been tasked to merge offices with duplicate functions in order to reduce the number of employees. These include the plan to merge the Cultural and Historical Sector with the City Cultural and Historical Affairs Commission, the Cultural and Historical Affairs Office, Fort San Pedro, Visayan Film, Public Library, among others.

The City is also planning to merge all environmental-related offices, such as the Cebu City Environment and Natural Resources Office, Cebu Environmental Sanitation and Enforcement Team, Coastal Management Board, Eco Parks, Parks and Playgrounds, and the Task Force Gubat sa Baha.

Tomalabcad explained that some of these offices have difficulty determining their parent units, while others have similar functions but fall under different umbrellas and sectors.

“Amo na nang gisuwatan ang mga department heads nga maghatag sila og organizational structure pero it will take time tungod kay nagbag-o atong mayor. Tan-awon pa namo karon, amo pa istoryahon si mayor, pero sigurado ko mu-suporta man siya,” said Tomalabcad.

He added that his office is aiming to fully implement the abolition of the concerned offices this year, a measure that also needs the approval of the Cebu City Council.

Tomalabcad said they will try to ensure that only a minimal number of employees will be affected by the rightsizing program.

“Either mawala sila or ma-absorb sila. Merger rani sila but as a consequence, ma-abolish ang uban,” said Tomalabcad.

Currently, Tomalabcad said they are continuing the process of massive regularization of employees.

So far, only one office of the City Hall has been successfully abolished in the past two years, which is the Office of the Registry of Deeds, as its services are now being handled by the Province.

Additionally, Tomalabcad said he also requested the Council to abolish the vacant plantilla positions for Salary Grades 1 and 2. He added that this is to establish that the entry level will now be at Salary Grade 3, which corresponds to a higher salary.

Tomalabcad said this request is currently being tackled before the Council and is awaiting approval.

Tomalabcad said earlier that his office has already identified the members of the Technical Working Group (TWG) that will lead the evaluation team in determining which employees will be renewed and which of them will have to go.

The TWG will comprise the Internal Audit Service Office (IASO), City Budget Office, Mayor’s Office, and Cebu City Administrator’s Office, while the HRDO will be the lead office. Tomalabcad said TWG has yet to meet to begin the evaluation.

Among the primary criteria is the “redundancy” of job functions across the City Hall offices. –/JG (FREEMAN)