CITY-ISSUED IPADS RETURNED: General Services Office (GSO) personnel inventory the 21 Cebu City Hall-issued iPads that were returned by department and office heads. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)
AFTER the cars, Cebu City Acting Mayor Margarita Osmeña now ordered the city government’s department heads and other concerned personnel to return the Apple iPads that were issued to them.
Osmeña warned the department heads who still have the Apple iPads that if they failed to turn over the gadget, they might suffer the same fate as the barangay captains who now face a complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman for refusing to return city-issued vehicles.
“[I don’t have a] deadline. But still, I think they have to be held accountable,” Osmeña said.
Out of 35 Apple iPads issued to department heads and other City Hall officials in 2014, only 21 units were returned as of yesterday, according to Ronald Malacora, officer in charge of the General Services Unit (GSO),
Osmeña issued on June 2 the memorandum for the recall of the Ipads for inventory purposes.
Malacora said the concerned city officers should return their gadgets even if Osmeña did not impose a deadline. However, he said, some department heads asked for more time because they needed to back up files stored in the iPads first before turning over the item to the GSO.
Malacora explained that outgoing mayor Michael Rama gave the Ipads to the department heads supposedly to establish connectivity among departments.
However, a number of department heads like him, did not receive the item, added Malacora.
He said some of the units were instead issued to other employees identified with the now suspended city mayor.
According to Malacora, the Ipads were recalled for inventory mainly because the city’s two-year contract with service provider Smart Communications has ended.
The iPads were acquired through postpaid plans of P2,000 per month for each unit and was included in the 2014 annual budget.
Asked if the iPads, like the recalled city-owned vehicles, could be reissued to the previous holders, Malacora said it would depend if it would still be necessary for them to own one, since some of these department heads might no longer be holding the same position under the administration of incoming Mayor Tomas Osmeña.
“[If they have resigned, of course it would be] assigned to another person,” he added.
Acting Mayor Osmeña, meanwhile, said she would need to consider first the request of two city officers that their postpaid plans under the name of the city government would be converted into personal plans.
“I don’t know. I didn’t see those [in the report]. I think that is unfair. It belongs to whoever paid [the plan]. And who paid? The city government.
Maybe they want to buy it. The residual value. Maybe,” she said./UP Cebu Intern Amy A. Macalinao
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