City paid P1.6-M in overtime pay
SP CODIFICATION OF ORDINANCES
MAYOR Belen Fernandez revealed that the city government has already paid out P1.6 million in overtime pay since 2014 for the codification of the city’s ordinances by the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) but the later has no output to show.
Speaking to newsmen Wednesday night, the mayor said the SP spent P1.2 million in 2014 and P400,000 in 2015 representing payment of overtime services of 12 employees.
She made the revelation in reaction to a demand by Minority floor Leader Redford Erfe- Mejia for another P270,000 in overtime pay supposedly for overtime services already rendered by 12 employees.
Ms. Fernandez said a number of the SP employees had in fact already came to her asking her to set aside amount for their overtime pay. “I called on the local finance committee to refer this to the City Auditor,” Fernandez said.
The city auditor, however, refused to grant the overtime pay because no work output has been reported since work on the codification of city ordinances started in 2014, an audit requirement.
“They have not shown any report to the COA nor to me,” the mayor said.
The mayor said the employees who were authorized to render overtime should have checked whether funds for overtime pay in their office are still available before proceeding with their supposed assigned tasks by their supervisor.
The standing rule, the mayor said, is one office can require overtime services from their employees only if there are available funds.
The mayor said some employees of the Market Division were authorized to render overtime services on Saturdays and Sundays and this is allowed by the law as they are to collect revenues during those days.
But their overtime pay, she said, is just small when compared to the amount of overtime pays being received by SP employees.
On the codification project reportedly being done by the SP employees, the mayor said she cannot recall if the legislative body already passed an ordinance directing the codification of ordinances.
Mayor Fernandez surmised that what the employees are doing is not codification but segregation or doing some re-filing of documents since codification requires legal and technical background.
“Isn’t it better if they hired lawyers to do the codification rather than employees with no legal background?” she asked.
Meanwhile, the Supplemental Budget No. 2 was eventually approved without adding the demanded additional fee for overtime pay of the SP employees. (Leonardo Micua)
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