Acting Makati Mayor Kid Peña starts hunt for ghost employees

You may now call him the city’s chief “exorcist.”

Acting Makati City Mayor Romulo “Kid” Peña on Friday said he has started an inventory of employees at the Makati City Hall to weed it of “ghost” employees.

Ghost employees are employees that are on the payroll but do not report for daily work.

Peña said he is primarily eyeing the more than 4,000 casual employees at the city hall whose employment contracts have ended last Tuesday without suspended Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay renewing them.

It would be recalled that the Department of Interior and Local Government officially served Binay’s preventive suspension for six months last Tuesday. He vacated his office the following day.

Peña told reporters that he will not be renewing the employment contracts of these casual employees until after an evaluation of their respective performances.

Peña said that under the rules, he has the authority to renew employment contracts after 30 days from assuming post as Makati City acting mayor.

“Ang lagi pong tanong sakin ay kung may mga ghost employees dito (city hall). Ito na nga po ‘yung batayan para malaman natin kung meron talaga. Magkakaroon po kami ng imbentaryo titignan po namin kung ‘yung pangalan na ‘yun ay nandito talaga o kung ‘yung kanilang performance nila ay pumapasok sila araw araw o kung sila ba ay gumagawa ng trabaho. Para sa gayon eh ‘yung kabuuan ng lungsod eh maiisip po nila na kami ay tumutupad talaga sa tungkulin na araw araw,” he said.

Peña added that the contracts for the security and janitorial services for the 23-storey Makati City Hall building have also lapsed. He said a new sand transparent bidding would be scheduled for the janitorial and security services.

He said the contracts for the security and janitorial services at the Makati City Hall are being renewed at the end of each month. In the meantime, Peña said the security and janitorial work in the city hall are being done by his supporters and volunteers.

Meanwhile, Peña also said that Makati City would be temporarily suspending its “sister cities program” which was implemented by suspended Mayor Binay.

Peña said he would be suspending the program to make sure that the needs of Makati would come first.

“Ititigil ko na po muna yung recruitment ng mga sisterhood pasintabi po muna dun sa ating mga kaibigang LGUs (local government units) ito po ay para po bigyan muna ng prioridad yun pong aming mga suliranin at yung dapat asikasuhinin dito sa lungsod ng Makati,” he said.

As part of the move, Peña said the Makati Friendship Suites – a hostel being operated by the city-  will temporarily be off-limits to visiting delegations from Makati’s “sister cities.”

For his part, Joey Salgado, spokesman for suspended Mayor Binay slammed Peña for pursuing an inventory of city hall personnel.  Salgado said Peña has no authority under law to cancel the city’s programs and contracts.

“We would like to remind Mr. Peña that he is not the new mayor. Wala siyang authority na mag-cancel ng mga program at kontrata. The Court of Appeals has yet to issue a ruling on Mayor Binay’s petition for a temporary restraining order,” he said.

Salgado added that the city government under suspended Mayor Binay has never received any adverse findings from the Commission on Audit following regular and random audits of the city hall’s personnel.

Salgado said that during the audits, casual personnel are ordered to personally report to the COA office at the 9th floor of the city hall building.

Salgado appeals to Peña to follow the rule of law adding that he is not exempted from it by just being a member of the Liberal Party (LP).

Salgado said he expects the Liberal Party to fabricate stories about the Binays to the point of producing fake documents to support their allegations.

“Ang agenda nman ng LP at mga kaalyado nila ay gumawa ng kung ano-anong kwento laban sa mga Binay. Hindi kami magtataka kung magllabas sila ng mga peke at kaduda-dudang dokumento ang gagawa ng mga kwento,” he said in a text message.

new source & image credits: philstar.com