Multiple irregularities, management gaps found

The audit also revealed that many accomplishments reported by JO workers merely mirrored program objectives, with little evidence of achieving key goals like monitoring policy implementation or assessing program effectiveness.

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"The primary function of the City Council is to enact ordinances and policies, making it questionable why such a large number of JO workers are employed, particularly when these roles may not be that essential to the legislative process. While the City Council does have an oversight function, the execution of programs is an executive duty. Employing numerous JO workers for tasks beyond the Council's legislative role warrants scrutiny," COA said.

Moreover, 31 percent of the JO workers had been repeatedly hired for three consecutive years, raising questions about redundancy and the need to fill permanent positions instead.

"This continuous engagement of the same JOs clearly suggests that they were necessary and desirable in carrying out the mandates of the Toledo City Government, which should have been addressed by filling vacant plantilla positions or creating plantilla items pursuant to the power of the LGUs to determine their own staffing pattern and manpower complement," COA said.

COA recommended and the Management agreed, through the HRMO or a creation of a committee, to conduct personnel audit, review, assessment and evaluation of the existing manpower complement and prepare an updated organizational structure/staffing pattern to be able to identify those personnel who are performing redundant functions with other JO workers and regular plantilla personnel, to prevent hiring of excessive and unnecessary personnel.

Similarly, an audit of Toledo City’s Clean and Green Program raised serious concerns over the management and verification of 590 JO workers, whose salaries totaled P42.2 million for 2024.