INDIVIDUALS who want to apply for work as job order workers in Mandaue City will need to secure three recommendations from local officials if they want to get a chance to work for the city government.
Lawyer Jamaal James Calipayan, Mandaue City administrator, told SunStar Cebu that they initiated a “triple recommendation system” in hiring job order workers at City Hall to ensure that they hire the right people.
Earlier this year, the Mandaue City Government fired and sued a job order employee assigned at the Traffic Enforcement Agency of Mandaue (Team) after he allegedly made “double payments” of the salaries of other contractual workers in their office in 2021.
Due to the job order worker’s antics, the city government lost P492,000 in funds.
Calipayan said the job order worker in question was hired by the City just before they implemented the new system of hiring contractual workers. The job order worker was hired by the City in June 2019 or during the first term of Mayor Jonas Cortes.
Calipayan said the job order worker they fired and sued was recommended by a barangay official to their office.
Due to what happened, Calipayan said they are now requiring prospective applicants for job order positions to secure at least three recommendations, mostly from local officials whether from the city or barangay, before they could be considered for the position.
Calipayan also clarified that before the Commission on Audit (COA) initiated its query on the “double payment” of salaries to Team’s job order workers, they had already conducted their own investigation after finding discrepancies in the Team’s payroll.
Calipayan said they have since initiated steps to improve their payroll system.
In their 2021 audit report on Mandaue City’s finances and other transactions, COA auditors found that from May 16 to June 16, 2021 and from June 16 to July 15 of the same year, job order order workers assigned under Team were paid twice.
When state auditors inquired with Team on the matter, they found out from one of the office’s high-ranking officials that the processing of the payroll for their personnel was assigned to a job order employee.
That job order employee was fired and then sued by city officials led by Calipayan for the double payment of salaries for the Team’s personnel, the extra payment of which the job order worker admitted to pocketing himself.