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CEBU CITY, Philippines – State auditors flagged the Cebu City government’s tradition of handing out honoraria to youth officials and barangay workers.
The Commission on Audit (COA), in its 2019 annual audit report, called out the attention of the City for providing additional monetary incentives amounting to a total of P25.4 million to Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) officials and to Gender and Development (GAD) focal persons, drivers, and loaders of its 80 barangays.
COA said this ran contrary to provisions found in the Local Government Code of 1991 and a Local Budget Circular (LBC) from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) that prohibits double compensation.
The agency told City Hall officials to stop the practice.
“We recommended that the Management stop the practice of paying honoraria to the barangay GAD focal persons, drivers, and laborers, and SK Officials pursuant to RA 7160 and DBM LBC No. 63,” said COA.
In response to the city’s attempted to defend its decision of giving out honoraria, COA said that the existing rules explicitly disallow additional compensation given to barangay officials and employees in the form of honorarium or salary increases that are chargeable to the local funds.
“Review of the transactions recorded in and extracted from e-NGAS (electronic-New Government Accounting System) for the period July 1 to December 31, 2019, showed that the City granted honoraria/allowances to the GAD focal persons, drivers and laborers, and SK Officials (including the SK treasurers and secretaries) of its 80 barangays totaling ₱25,379,308.00,” portions of the report said.
Of this amount, approximately P16.2 million was allocated for barangay drivers and laborers while P4.8 million went to SK officials. GAD Focal Persons from the city’s 80 barangays also received a total of P4.4 million worth of honoraria.
COA said that the honoraria granted to GAD focal persons, drivers, and laborers were already on top of the salary they are receiving from their respective barangays and is tantamount to ‘double compensation.’
“Meanwhile, payment of allowances to SK Officials and its treasurers and secretaries are without legal basis since only the SK chairperson is entitled to compensation, allowances, emoluments, and other privileges if she or he is an ex-officio member of the Sangguniang Barangay in the City,” they added.
According to COA’s report, the city government tried to justify its action by citing a provision from the Local Government Code which allows the city to release financial assistance provided that its financial standing enables it to do so.
“Also, given the barangays’ limited funds to finance the honoraria of its personnel and the risky duties and responsibilities of the drivers and loaders, it is not too much for the City to give additional honoraria. But eventually, if the barangays are already financially viable, they will stop the practice of giving the same,” was the city’s response. / dcb