THE Department of Agriculture’s Central Office (CO), three attached agencies, and a regional office have been flagged by the Commission on Audit for excessive expenditure on the hiring of contract of service (COS) and job order (JO) personnel in 2021.
The 2021 audit of the DA showed that the Central Office and 19 attached offices hired a total of 10,095 JO/COS during the year and shelled out P3.665 billion for their wages.
Auditors said the excessive hiring were found in DA Central Office, Bureau of Agricultural and Fisheries Engineering (BAFE), Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR), Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM), Regional Field Office 10 in Cagayan de Oro City.
“The number of COS/JO personnel hired during the year exceeded the number of filled positions for regular employees [in the Central Office] by 129 or 124.16 percent,” the COA said even as it lauded the appointment of 62 qualified contractual employees to permanent positions.
In the BAFE, auditors noted that of the 71 available plantilla positions, only 48 were filled up and only three former COS/JO workers were signed up for regularization.
For BAR, the number of COS hires exceeded the filled-up positions by 54 percent while in RFO 10, the COA issued notices of suspension for non-submission of disbursement vouchers on the hiring of COS/JO.
The commission reminded the DA and its attached offices that COS/JO personnel should be prioritized in the hiring for available staff posts in the agency if they meet the required eligibility as mandated under the Civil Service Commission — Commission on Audit — Department of Budget and Management Join Circular No. 1 s. 2017.
The COA audit showed that among the biggest spender on non-permanent hires were the DA Regional Field Office (RFO) 4B with P1.527 billion (569 JO/COS), the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) with P390.31 million (544 hires), DA Central Office with P219.06 million (663 hires), RFO 2 with P188.85 million (882 hires), RFO 6 with P156.975 million (801 hires), RFO 3 with P127.67 million (613 hires), and RFO 5 with P124.675 million (789 hires).
