THE city government of Bacolod is planning to hire at least 2,700 job order (JO) workers this year, City Administrator Pacifico Maghari III said Thursday, January 5.
Maghari said they will be deployed to various offices at the Bacolod Government Center.
In 2022, Bacolod City has a total of 3,500 JOs, he said, adding that they will reduce the figure to 2,700 this year.
“We will make sure that the reduction of the job order workers will not affect the function of various departments. We also have our regular employees to ensure the delivery of services for the people of Bacolod,” he said.
Maghari noted that they are now evaluating various offices to determine the number of job orders to be deployed.
“We have essential departments that need more personnel to serve the people of Bacolod,” Maghari said.
He said, for now, the city government is now issuing an identification card to theJOs and they will be required to process an automated teller machine (ATM) card at the Landbank of the Philippines for their salary.
“We are really serious in improving the payroll system for the job order workers so they need to process their ATM cards,” he added.
The Sangguniang Panlungsod earlier approved on the third and final reading the P3.250 billion proposed annual budget of Bacolod City for 2023.
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) earlier announced that the national tax allotment (NTA), formerly known as Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA), share of local government units (LGUs) will be reduced this year.
In Bacolod City, Benitez earlier said the city’s NTA will be reduced by P300 million.
“So our share from the national government from P2 billion will be reduced to P1.7 billion, so we will have a reduction of P300 million in 2023. We compensated this by reducing the number of job orders,” he said.
The reduction of the city’s NTA, he added, will affect the manpower of various departments and divisions.*