Undermanned Secretary’s Office gets green light to hire more staff

Local

FOR years, the Secretary's Office of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) of Cebu has been functioning undermanned–a manpower woes that has taken a toll on the workers’ mental and physical well-being.

A much-needed relief is coming.

The Provincial Board approved an ordinance, giving the office the green light to create additional plantilla positions.

For over a decade, the SP Secretary's Office has been undermanned, having only seven permanent employees, including its head, and seven casual personnel performing all the functions of the office.

Atty. Pulchra Marie Acevedo, the SP Secretary, said that out of the six permanent employees, three are categorized as utility workers but are performing secretariat functions. Some of them have been in the service for 20 to 30 years.

"I want to believe that we are still performing efficiently and effectively, but it is taking its toll on our mental and physical well-being. The load that we have every week is now doubled or even tripled," Acevedo told members of the board during the July 13 regular session when the second reading of the ordinance was discussed.

Acevedo said that in the past years, the office was receiving and working on a hundred resolutions, measures, among others, but currently the number has doubled or even tripled, excluding the administrative cases filed before the Sanggunian and requests for documents—all of which need to be done within a week's time, including the other functions in between.

Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) President and ex officio Board Member Celestino "Tining" Martinez III, in his ordinance, said that the expanded workload of the personnel in the SP Secretary's Office has already resulted in "operational strain and capacity limitations," which necessitates organizational strengthening to ensure the effective and efficient delivery of public service.

"The creation of additional plantilla positions in the Office of the Secretary to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan aims to strengthen organizational capacity, further improve service delivery, and ensure effective and efficient responsiveness to the current and growing demands of legislative operations, consistent with the principles and standards of good governance, institutional stability, and valued human resources," the ordinance said.

Acevedo said they will create 11 plantilla positions, including one Sergeant-at-Arms.

The purpose of the creation is for the placement and promotion of the existing low salary grade personnel and the hiring of more personnel with law degrees or lawyers.

The ordinance creating the plantilla positions was approved on third and final reading on July 20 regular session and was sgined by the Gov. Pamela Baricuatro on July 23. (MyTVCebu)