Friday, December 19, 2008 ‘Minimal’ extra cash gift for Angeles LGU employees By Ian Ocampo Flora
ANGELES CITY -- The 1,500 City Hall employees here will receive an extra cash gift but it will be “minimal.”
This was revealed on Thursday by City Administrator Bong Alvaro who said the City Government will give “extra cash gifts” but the exact amount will be revealed by Mayor Francis Nepomuceno on Friday.
“Categorically, yes, there will be an extra cash gift for city hall employees, but the exact amount is still being deliberated by our finance team,” Alvaro stressed.
The city administrator even clarified that the amount to be given is “an extra cash gift” and not a “performance bonus or GMA bonus” that is mandated only for National Government employees.
He stressed that the city is following the Local Budget Memorandum issued by Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya last December 11.
“The memo states that the cash gift would depend on the city’s available funds,” Alvaro said.
He also dismissed a claim of some city hall employees that the city should give a P10,000 performance bonus as stipulated in the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) memo.
A city hall employee who gave statements to Sun.Star Pampanga on record said the City Government will only give a “minimal” extra cash gift.
“We have information that the city will only be giving P5,000 for the cash gift. I believe this is an obvious insult on our part since neighboring municipalities and the province have given P10,000,” the source said.
The Provincial Government of Pampanga alone has given P20,000 to each of its employees while the City of San Fernando has approved the release of P10, 000 cash gift to its employees.
The employee said the city must not go below P10,000 since it (City Government) would surely have enough budget savings from last year.
“Our budget for this year is around P1 billion and they (city hall officials) cannot even appropriate P10,000 for its employees? The Province of Pampanga has a lesser budget compared to us but they have already approved the cash gift of P20, 000 per employee,” the source said.
“They are saying the cash gift should come from the city’s savings. For sure, the city has a lot of that. If not, then we should ask where the money went,” the source said.
The source added that city hall employees are planning to boycott their Christmas party Friday if the announcement on the extra cash gift is not within their expectations.
