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Wednesday, March 26, 2003
Davao City Hall has 300 'ghost' employees
By Aurea A. Gerundio
DAVAO -- City Hall has over 300 "ghost" employees, workers who are allegedly receiving their pay regularly but are not reporting to the office daily, two officials revealed Tuesday.
But while the workers, also known as the "15-30" employees, enjoy pay without working for it, 72 police car drivers employed by the city and vital to its 911 emergency hotline have yet to receive wages for the first quarter of the year.
City Administrator Melchor Quitain and the Human Resource Management Office (HRMO) Chief Marcelino Escalada Jr. told reporters the "ghosts" have been in the payroll for quite some time now and several are even beyond the retirement age of government workers.
The two officials learned of the anomaly after Mayor Rodrigo Duterte instructed them to review the city's payroll. They have until March to correct the irregularity.
The "ghost" employees, according to Escalada, have been consistently receiving salary for a long time now. He refused to identify the offices the employees belong to.
Only that he could not anymore determine when the workers were included in City Hall's payroll.
Escalada said the fictitious employees have until March 31 to report to their office; otherwise, they will be automatically removed from the payroll.
He said that 35 of the 300 "ghost employees" are above 65 years old, which is the mandatory retirement age for employees in the public sector under Civil Service Commission regulations.
Unpaid drivers
Concerning the unpaid drivers, an earlier report said the drivers feared being dismissed from service if they would raise their concern to City Hall officials.
Davao City Police Office Director Conrado Laza said his office could only go as far as following up the immediate release of the drivers' salary with the concerned offices.
Escalada, meanwhile, explained the delay in the release of the drivers' salaries was because of problems encountered in computing their actual number of workdays.
The drivers have been told about the reasons for the delay, he added.
Escalada said half of the total number of drivers would be getting their pay from the city mayor's office while the other half were to be listed under the payroll of the general services office.
He said drivers are required to render 22 days of service in a month's time.
He said their contract is now being processed under Civil Service Commission rules. Sun.Star Davao
(March 26, 2003 issue)
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