Saturday, September 15, 2007
Mandaue still not hiring
CONFLICTING positions between Mandaue City’s executive and legislative departments continue, with the stalemate now concerning personnel matters.
Mayor Jonas Cortes and Vice Mayor Carlo Fortuna could not agree on how many workers could be accommodated.
Also, Cortes is still not comfortable with the newly approved ordinance creating five regular positions under each councilor.
Aside from the issue of regular workers under the new ordinance, Cortes is making a “take-it or leave-it” offer of five non-regular workers for each councilor. The legislative department wants more than this, saying there are plenty of people who want work.
Non-regular workers include the traffic enforcers, who get P250 a day; program employees receiving P215 a day and workers for the Clean and Green program who get P2,600 a month.
“Yes we have the money for their salaries, but are we allowed by the law,” Cortes said in an interview with Sun.Star Cebu.
In a luncheon meeting weeks ago, Fortuna asked Cortes to allow them to accommodate workers for the City. That meeting was part of the mayor’s gesture to open communication lines since both camps were initially at loggerheads.
Payback
“If the mayor can accommodate a lot of his followers, we suggested that we be allowed also to accommodate workers,” said Fortuna.
No politician may have admitted it, but offering employment is usually done by winners as a form of payback for their supporters.
Cortes is surprised why councilors want more than five workers when he previously survived as a councilor with only two program employees.
He remains firm on his stand to have a “lean but mean” workforce, and tells legislators to “take it or leave it.”
Fortuna, in a separate interview, wants to know the mayor’s specific number by a “lean but mean” workforce.
As of June 30, 2007, the City has around 2,050 workers: 1,200 program employees, 200 casuals, 150 traffic enforcers and 500 clean and green personnel.
Last Wednesday, the council passed an ordinance creating 67 legislative positions, to be manned by legislative assistants who will be co-terminus with the councilors.
Salary range
The 67 workers will be spread into five positions for each of the 12 councilors and the remaining seven for the vice mayor.
Fortuna explained that legislative assistants will be getting compensation equivalent to the job description.
A source said the salaries of the proposed administrative assistants will range from P5,590 to P14,630, depending on their positions.
Councilor Emil Rosal, one of the proponents, said the salaries of the newly created positions will be P2,250,000 for the remainder of they year (October to December) and P9 million annually.
Rosal, in his committee report, stated that the City can still spend more for personnel services (PS) without going beyond the limits.
The 45-percent PS ceiling for Mandaue budget is P203,270,324. The City’s allocation for PS this year is only P163,261,547. With the difference of P40,008,777, the City can still accommodate the council’s recent proposal.
Section 325 of the Local Government Code limits appropriations for personnel services for a fiscal year to 45 percent of the total annual income.
Cortes directed his department heads to study the newly passed ordinance creating new positions. (OCP)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (September 15, 2007 issue)
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