THE Human Resource Development Office (HRDO) of the Cebu City Government submitted a list of 2,308 vacant positions to the City Council during its regular session on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024.
This was in accordance with the City Hall’s direction of employees’ “rightsizing.”
Henry Tomalabcad, HRDO head, submitted to the council an endorsement dated Aug. 21, stating that there are 653 vacant positions that are funded and 1,665 vacant positions that are not funded.
In a phone interview on Saturday, Aug. 31, Tomalabcad said they are focusing on filling up the 653 vacant positions since these are plantilla positions.
He said they hope to do this before the end of the year.
Meanwhile, Tomalabcad said they are encouraging department heads to request the acting mayor to allot a budget for the 1,665 positions that are not funded so these can be filled.
Since the budget for the year 2025 will be proposed in October yet, Tomalabcad said the department heads should already request a budget for the unfunded positions so this can be included in next year’s budget.
In previous SunStar reports, Acting Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia said that he had already formed an evaluation committee to assess regular, casual and job order (JO) employees.
Garcia reportedly said the committee will review employees’ job descriptions and functions across all departments.
The acting mayor assured a fair evaluation process, saying that he has observed some employees doing less work while others have multiple functions.
The employees whose contracts will not be renewed will be given a chance to file an appeal, Garcia said.
In a press conference on Aug. 19, Garcia said that his instructions to the Personnel Selection Board is to give priority to the casual employees when they apply for a permanent position.
“Once that casual or JO employee is hired, my instruction is katong na leave out nga position nga casual, dili nato mapun-an (the casual position that was left will no longer be filled). So, in a sense, imong gi-transfer lang from casual to permanent (you are transferring from casual to permanent),” he said.
“So wala gyu’y mapuno nga empleyado. Gani nalipay sila kay na-permanent sila sa ilang job title,” he added.
(No employee will actually be added. Indeed they are just happy since they will become permanent employees.)
With regards to employees whose contracts will not be renewed, Garcia said there are job fairs with companies that the City Government partners with.
Rightsizing
The acting mayor wanted to address the need for “rightsizing,” a policy initiated by suspended Mayor Michael Rama, aimed at reducing staff numbers while improving efficiency.
Garcia acknowledged that little progress had been made on rightsizing but reaffirmed his commitment to continue the initiative.
Tomalabcad reported that Cebu City Hall currently employs around 6,700 people, including 2,776 temporary workers and 1,321 permanent staff. The administration aims to fill all available plantilla positions.
Garcia reportedly has directed the Personnel Selection Board to speed up the hiring procedure for permanent positions. This is his response to the Civil Service Commission’s and the Commission on Audit’s recommendations to the City to hire additional regular employees. / JPS