At the Cebu City hall next year:6,000 to lose jobs

CEBU, Philippines — What used to be a lively and jovial regular flag-raising ceremony at the Cebu City Hall turned morose yesterday when the employees in attendance learned that more than half of them would no longer have their jobs next year.

By 2024, only 3,000 of close to 9,000 employees will remain working with the Cebu City Government, so said Mayor Michael Rama.

Human Resource and Development Office Officer-in-Charge Henry Tomalabcad said the city has about only 1,300 regular employees, 3,330 are casuals and the rest are job orders.

“We would like to endeavor that one year before 2025, tres mil ra ang empleyado sa siyudad sa Sugbo,” Rama announced during the flag ceremony that got everyone astounded.

The mayor, however, assured that the city will help those that will be affected by the non-renewal of their contracts find other jobs.

“There are many ways. Susan (Ardosa) will have a very comprehensive (plan) under DMDP (Department of Manpower Development and Placement),” assures Rama.

He also told Ardosa to connect with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) while other concerned city officials to look into businesses and establishments for those that can no longer be accommodated at the City Hall.

Rama recalled that in his previous term as duly elected mayor, they only had around 4,000 to 5,000 employees.

Now, the number of employees has doubled which makes them “either top heavy or overweight.”

Prepare ahead

“Ay mo’g kaguol, preparar gyud mo,” Rama said.

It is also important for an employee to assess oneself from educational attainment, length of service, expertise and health.

The mayor’s decision to trim down the number of employees at the City Hall and do right-sizing had been further validated with the Commission on Audit calling out the city’s attention for hiring “so many” job order (JO) employees at the Cebu City Hall.

Such practice has been described as a “wasteful expenditure” and may lead to potential “bureaucratic inefficiency.”

In the latest COA Annual Audit report, the hiring of 4,091 Job Order (JO) workers is about 45 percent of the city’s total workforce, in which P602,247,468.96 was allocated for their wages in 2022.

Based on the state auditor’s observation, it appears that the city has a “weak internal control in the recruitment, repetitive hiring of JOs, job mismatch, overlapping/redundancy, and unclear/ unverified accomplishments resulting in potential bureaucratic inefficiency and wasteful government expenditure.”

For the weak internal recruitment control, the COA said there should be an intervention by the city’s Human Resource Department (HRD) or an independent screening committee to ensure that the job order personnel are capable of performing the job. — (FREEMAN)