SP scraps P5,000 CNA money for city govt's 31 dep't heads
Zulueta
At least 31 department heads of the Iloilo City government would have been richer by P5,000 by now through unfair means had not the Sangguniang Panlungsod Committee on Appropriations unearthed the scheme that would have caused the appropriation of a total of P155,000 more as Collective Negotiation Agreement (CNA) benefits originally intended for rank-and-file employees of the city government belonging to the Resource Employees Association of City Hall (Reach).
In last Wednesday's regular session of the city council, the Committee on Appropriations headed by Councilor Jose Espinosa III presented and later caused the passage of Supplemental Budget No. 1 for calendar year 2007 with a total amount of P45,480,000, which includes the P5,780,000 that would be used to pay for the P5,000 CNA benefits of the 1,156 Reach members "of good standing."
According to Iloilo City Councilor Perla Zulueta, who presented and defended SB No. 1 on the floor, the 31 department heads, except for two office chiefs and an assistant, "never have been Reach members of good standing for they never really paid the association's monthly dues on a regular basis, which in turn disqualifies them from getting their hands on the P5,000 CNA money."
"With the possible exception of three persons, they never interested themselves in being Reach members before; now that there is money to get from being a member, they would now want to join Reach by simply paying for a year's worth of dues? We think that's very much unfair to longtime members, the reason why we decided to scrap the P155,000 allotment initially appropriated to pay the CNA of the 31 department heads from SB No. 1 that we presented on the floor," said Zulueta, who once again showed her fiscalizer role by guarding against unnecessary and irregular expenses of the city government.
It was learned that the P155,000 initially appropriated for the department heads' CNA benefits was then realigned to be used for gasoline expenses of the City Mayor's Office.
It was further learned that of the 31 department heads, only Diosdada Carado of the Sangguniang Panlungsod, Thelma Golez of the Human Resource Management Office, and her deputy chief Ofelia Rodriguez who had been religiously paying the employees association's monthly dues since its inception several years ago. Under the scheme, which was traced to City Budget Officer Ninda Atinado, department heads need to pay P110 per month--or a total of P1,320 for a year--to avail of the CNA benefit.
A City Hall source, who requested anonymity, said department heads are not really insisting on getting the P5,000 CNA money, "for they know it wouldn't sound good if they would join Reach only because of the amount that they stand to get for being a member."
"From what I know, it was only Mrs. Atinado who is working to have department heads included among those to receive such benefit, perhaps because she was one of those that would be benefited by it," said the same source.
"I'm sure some people would use this issue against me and the other members of the appropriations committee, nga ginabalabagan namon ang paghatag sang mga benepisyo para sa empleyado sang ciudad pero ang amon tani ang insakto lang [that we are blocking the release of benefits to employees of the city but what we are after here is what is just and fair]," said the fiery lady councilor in conclusion.