URDANETA CITY–Records show the number of casual employees assigned at the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) office has more than doubled from 60 in previous years to 125 this year. But the mayor does not know where all these people are.

And so Mayor Amadeo Perez Jr. has launched a hunt for these so-called ‘ghost’ employees who were appointed by Vice Mayor Julio Parayno who heads the SP.

“I do not know where they are,” said Perez who has personally gone around the SP offices to count heads.

Perez said he has no power to prohibit the vice mayor from appointing employees for his office.

Parayno, meanwhile, said that some of the employees have been assigned to other departments in the city government and others at the public market.

Perez said Parayno has no authority to assign casual employees to offices other than his office and the SP.

To further monitor the whereabouts of the ghost employees, Perez has also given instructions to the department heads not to accept those being assigned by the vice mayor to their offices.

EXHAUSTED

FUNDS

With twice as many casual employees hired, the P4 million budget for their wages this year had already been used up as early as June.

Consequently, majority of the casual employees have reportedly not received their salaries last month.

Perez said Parayno has also been using SP funds appropriated for other items to pay the salaries of his appointed casual employees, a move that has irked the council members.

The councilors have also reported that Parayno, forced to decrease the number of casuals due to lack of funding, decided to lay off the two employees assigned to each of their offices.

The number of employees has now been pegged at 40 for October to December and a P1.2 million supplemental budget was passed by the council members to cover their salaries. #

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