The Commission on Audit has recommended to Bulacan Gov. Wilhelmino Sy Alvarado to fire 81 consultants of the provincial government for lacking expertise or failing to meet necessary documents.
The hiring of such personnel under questionable circumstances violated Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Law, according to CoA.
During an exit conference with the audit team, Sy Alvarado instructed the provincial human resource management office to carry out CoA’s recommendations, including the limitation on the hiring of consultants only to those who could deliver expert or technical work outside of the functions of regular personnel, requirement to submit monthly accomplishment reports before release of payment and compliance with existing guidelines for hiring to avoid wastage of public funds.
CoA said the consultants were hired on six-month contracts with wages ranging from P10,000 to P40,000 a month.
“The consultants engaged by the management have no technical or professional expertise, with no definite expected output and their services could be performed or provided by regular plantilla personnel,” its report read.
Payroll records showed the provincial government incurred P20.563 million as of Dec. 31, 2017, to pay the consultants have reached P20.562 million as of Dec. 31, 2017.
“Management failed to set performance indicators and standards as basis for assessment of actual services rendered. Likewise, there is no document submitted that would warrant the need to hire such a big number of consultants,” CoA cited.
Some of the consultants’ job descriptions showed they were merely duplicating works assigned to regular employees, including clerical, encoding, bookkeeping, and secretarial work.
CoA also assailed the validity of consultancy contracts due to the absence of terms of reference containing the scope of work and expected outputs, and non-submission of the consultants’ curriculum vitae as well as their accomplishment reports.
“The hiring of consultants whose functions are redundant to the respective functions of concerned officials are considered unnecessary expenditures. Hence, some of the consultants’ services can be dispensed with,” it said.