Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim has scored a victory in compelling all city employees to accomplish the proper personal data sheet (PDS) with the personnel and personally receive their salaries in the cash windows.
This, after Vice Mayor Isko Moreno issued a memorandum dated June 27 authorizing the secretary to the city council to comply with Lim’s Executive Order (EO) 21 requiring the submission of PDS of all city council employees to the personnel office or administrator’s office.
Moreno also ordered the termination of all contracts for casual appointments and consultancy services exceeding the duration of six months effective June 30 and said that “henceforth, new sets of appointments of casual employees and contracts of consultancy services shall be processed and issued for a period of six months starting July 1 to December 2012.”
However, according to chief of staff and media bureau director Ric de Guzman, Moreno’s termination order was already “moot and academic” since Lim in his EO 21 dated June 21, had declared null and void all appointments for casual, job orders, researchers and consultants whose duration exceeded six months.  
Lim’s  memorandum noted that the number of casuals appointed by Moreno was 789, while the researchers and casuals numbered 408, with periods of one year in violation of Section 77 and Section 344 of the Local Government Code.
De Guzman said that while Section 77 states that only the local chief executive may appoint casuals whose period of employment shall not exceed six months, Section 344 provides, among other things, that vouchers and payrolls shall be certified to and approved by the head of the department of office who has administrative control of the fund concerned, as to validity, propriety and legality of the claim involved. It also stated that “…approval of the disbursement voucher by the local chief executive himself shall be required whenever local funds are disbursed.”
In the same EO 21, Lim also declared that no appointment shall be issued or approved without the required PDS submitted to the city personnel office, together with the appointee’s current passport-size photographs.
“All personnel with validly issued appointments as casual, job orders, researchers, consultants and other contractual appointments shall receive their salaries, compensation or remunerations in the cash teller windows of the city treasurer’s office upon presentation of a validly issued ID such as driver’s license, passport, SSS, Pag-IBIG, Philhealth or Postal ID,” the memo further said.
Lim also warned that any personnel of the city treasurer’s office who released salaries, remuneration or compensation in violation of the EO shall be held administratively liable.
De Guzman recalled that when the Commission on Audit called the attention of the city government regarding a P1.1-billion overpayment in salaries, Lim ordered a slash of personnel even in his own office and departments.
He said Moreno and some councilors however, refused, until Lim found out that for years already, the salaries of their casuals, researchers and consultants have been received by a single office which then allegedly distributed the salaries to the supposed employees; that none of the said employees ever personally claimed their wages at the cashier or signed the payroll themselves and that none of them have the required PDS with the personnel.
It will also be recalled that last June 21, Lim gave Moreno and 28 city councilors up to June 30 to produce in person complete with the required PDS their consultants, researchers and casual employees whose salaries have been paid by the city government for the past years but have not appeared personally to claim their pay, saying that should they fail to do so, he will order a stop to the payment of all the salaries for the office of the vice mayor, the city councilors and even their staff.
Lim noted that of the 38 councilors, only nine have complied with the requirement of submitting the personal data sheets of their consultants, researchers and casuals, who have gotten their salaries after personally appearing at the cashier’s office to receive their wages and sign accordingly.
The mayor had noted that the yearly allocation for the salaries of the OVM and the city council is P503 million but that of the amount, only P270 million goes to the salaries of the vice mayor, councilors and their regular employees, leaving the rest supposedly going to the salaries of consultants, casuals and researchers.