City still cannot pay adcom
THERE appears no more hope in sight for the settlement of the long delayed P1,000 per month additional compensation allowance (adcom) for Dagupan City government employees since April this year.
City Budget Officer Ildefonso Calimlim said there is no money in the city coffers to pay employees the P8,000 due them from April to November.
Employees have been feeling dismayed, especially after having enjoyed the bonanza from January to March this year.
Adcom is provided for under an executive order signed early this year by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to boost the earnings of state workers. However, the granting of the additional compensation for employees of provincial, city and municipal governments will depend on availability of funds of these units.
Calimlim said what the city government can only afford to pay at this time is the remaining 50% of the compulsory 13th month pay and half of the P5,000 cash gift for employees. The first other half of these amounts were already released in June this year.
Calimlim said the city government can readily pay the remaining Christmas bonus and cash gift because these are provided for in the city budget. The adcom, on the other hand, is entirely dependent on savings realized by the departments.
The only way adcom can be paid, he said, is if Mayor Benjamin Lim agrees to use the first tranche of the 40% additional Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) received by the city amounting to P6 million.
The city has a P16.7 million additional IRA to be remitted by the national government, on top of the P184.5 total IRA share of the city this year. But for lack of funds in the national government, the additional IRA will be released in three batches.
Calimlim said the second tranche of the additional IRA, equivalent to 10% of the total, would be received by the city on November 27, while the remaining 50% is set to be released on December 10.
He said the decision whether to use that money to pay for the adcom rests on Mayor Lim since its release will have its repercussion on the some budgeted items.
Calimlim expressed hope that the unpaid adcom could be settled by December to give employees cash for the Christmas season spendings. — AQL
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