COA calls out Cebu City gov’t over JO, casual workers hirings

Local

WHILE thousands of permanent government positions in Cebu City Hall sat unfilled last year, temporary workers were hired en masse to do the jobs meant for regular employees.

This is among the key findings of the Commission on Audit (COA) in its 2024 Annual Audit Report, which showed that the Cebu City Government continued to employ thousands of Job Order (JO) and casual workers to perform routine, day-to-day government functions, even though more than half of its plantilla positions remained vacant.

COA warned that this long-standing overreliance on temporary hires undermines the principles of merit-based hiring and jeopardizes the delivery of essential public services in sectors such as health, traffic management, and frontline licensing operations.

“In no case shall a casual appointment be issued to fill a vacant plantilla position,” the audit stressed, citing Section 9(g), Rule VI of the 2017 Omnibus Rules on Appointments and Other Human Resource Actions (ORAOHRA).

According to the audit, the city issued 2,818 casual appointments in 2024, many of them for licensed professionals such as nurses, dentists, and accountants, despite the fact that 63 percent of approved plantilla positions were left unfilled by year-end.

In one example, the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) hired 19 casual nurses, even as 17 plantilla Nurse I positions remained vacant.

Similarly, the Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO) deployed 15 casual utility laborers, while 92 regular posts for the same role remained open.

COA emphasized that these appointments went against clear guidelines barring the use of casual workers to perform duties reserved for regular employees.

The report noted that these practices continued despite repeated disapprovals by the Civil Service Commission (CSC), and in many cases, the city government reissued or extended the same appointments without taking corrective action.

The audit further revealed that Cebu City had hired 5,224 Job Order workers in 2024, even though JO contracts are only meant for short-term or emergency work.

In many cases, COA found that JOs were performing regular duties, including serving as administrative aides and traffic enforcers.

Some JO hires had been continuously employed for two to five years, in direct violation of CSC rules that prohibit JOs from handling ongoing, permanent roles.

“This practice potentially compromises the quality and efficiency of public service delivery and runs counter to the principle of merit and fitness in government employment,” the audit stated.

Because JO workers do not undergo formal screening, competitive hiring, or structured training, COA warned that their proliferation could affect performance, morale, and long-term capacity in the city’s bureaucracy.

Public administration experts have long cautioned that the excessive use of temporary workers, without regularizing essential personnel, weakens governance institutions.

Unlike plantilla employees, JO and casual workers have no tenure, limited benefits, and are often excluded from performance monitoring and capacity-building programs.

As a result, the city’s dependence on non-regular staff could impact continuity, accountability, and professionalism, especially in critical departments like public health, enforcement, and community services.

To address the issue, COA recommended that the Cebu City Government:

- Stop assigning plantilla functions to casual and JO workers,

- Expedite the hiring and regularization of qualified personnel,

- Reorganize its staffing structure to match service demands and fiscal realities, and

- Review and realign unfunded or unnecessary plantilla items.

In its official response, the city’s Human Resource Development Office (HRDO) acknowledged that efforts to reform the organizational structure were already underway.

However, it cited budget constraints, salary limitations, and unfunded positions as challenges to faster regularization.

This latest audit adds to concerns raised by COA in its previous 2023 report, which showed that 2,311 plantilla positions had been left unfilled, despite P2.19 billion in appropriations earmarked for staffing.

At the time, Cebu City had 3,645 approved plantilla jobs, but only 1,334 were filled. Meanwhile, the city engaged 3,172 casuals and 3,338 JO workers to carry out government operations.

This was despite a promise made by then-mayor Michael Rama in April 2024 to implement a “massive regularization” following the city’s internal rightsizing program.

Rama had announced the opening of 600 permanent positions, but COA noted that over 2,300 regular jobs remained vacant by the end of the year.

COA also observed that from 2021 to 2024, Cebu City had not significantly increased the number of permanent government workers, even with the legal and financial means to do so.(TGP)