BF: No funds to pay 914 consultants, emergency workers
No funds to pay 914 consultants, emergency workers, Dagupan mayor admits
(Courtesy of PNA.gov.ph)
DAGUPAN CITY, May 24 (PNA) -- The city government has no funds to pay at least 900 consultants and technical workers under its payroll, mayor-elect Belen Fernandez said.
Fernandez said she already signed the payroll for the 69 technical consultants (TCs) and 845 emergency workers (EWs) for May 1 to 15 but she admitted that she does not know if the workers can be paid for May 16 to 31 and June.
The payroll for these workers eat up P6.9 million in monthly salaries alone.
Faced with this predicament, Fernandez called on all the TCs and EWs to a meeting Thursday at the Dagupan City Astrodome but only close to 500 attended.
"I told them one by one the true financial situation we are in and I was hoping that they had understood it," said Fernandez.
"The reason for the meeting was because according to the budget officer, Virgil Tangco, there is not enough fund left for the consultants and EWs," she said.
Fernandez was assisted in that meeting by lawyer Farah Decano, the city administrator-designate of Dagupan.
Fernandez was surprised to find out the huge number of TCs and EWs -- twice more than the 400 regular employees of the city government -- when she assumed office starting May 16.
A summary of TCs and EWs released by the City Accounting Office showed that these workers are fanned to various offices doing clerical jobs.
The biggest concentration of EWs are in the City Mayor's Office which has 146 EWs despite it has already 69 TCs while there are 117 EWs assigned with the city market's anti-hawking task force whose job is to run after erring vendors.
From 845, the number of EWs could be pruned down to 300 until June 30.
Fernandez said the TCs will not be allowed to continue until June 30 to save funds. (PNA)