The Commission on Audit (COA) questioned the Human Resource and Management Office (HRMO) for failing to deduct unused mandatory/forced leaves from earned vacation leave credits.
In the COA 2018 Annual Audit Report, the recorded balance of leave credits is doubtful because it does not follow Section 25 of Omnibus Rules on Leave.
Based on the 90 sampled city employees, out of the 2,600 regular employees, a total of 189 days of 30 (33%) employees were not subjected to deduction of unused mandatory leave.
“The data would indicate that proper monitoring was not fully observed by the City Human Resource Management Office personnel concerned, hence validity of the balances of leave credits of the employees cannot be ascertained,” the COA said in the report.
The COA further observed that the posting or updating of earned leave credits of some employees were not done on a monthly basis. “Also, some leave cards are incomplete, which created difficulty in verifying the forwarded balance,” COA added.
The COA explained that incorrect balance may lead to the approval of and/or availment of monetization by employees whose leave credits are less than the required balance after deducting the mandatory leave.
It added that failure to update and correct the leave balance may result in overpayment of terminal leave benefits upon retirement.
The COA ordered the local government to direct the HRMO head to:
• Properly monitoring the leave credits
• Deduct the forfeited unused mandatory or forced leave
• Review and update all leave cards
• Ensure correctness of leave balances
• Record the earned leave credits on a monthly basis
As a response, the city said it is developing an automated electronic payroll system to ensure the correctness of daily attendance and earned leaves.
It added that the updating and posting of monthly earned leave credits are pursuant to Executive Order No. 15 or the “Order Decentralizing the Leave Administration from HRMO to the different Department and Offices of the City Government of Davao.”
