Noreco 2 Chairman James Fontelo has scored the administration of the Municipality of Sibulan for what he said was spending excessively on job order employees to the detriment of the town’s obligation to pay its utility consumption.
In an interview, Fontelo said the town had been in the list of delinquent power consumers for its unpaid electric bill of around P650,000 covering a three-month period.
“That’s my observation. There’s too much politicking going on in Sibulan,” Fontelo, who had served Sibulan for 27 years as councilor and vice-mayor.
He said he had reminded the municipal treasurer about the town’s unpaid electric bill, adding that as a Sibulanon, he wouldn’t want the town to be without electricity, especially at Christmas time.
At least four government buildings had been scheduled for electrical disconnection before Christmas.
The Municipal Council was expected to settle its electric bill to beat the December 23 deadline after passing a supplemental budget.
For her part, Sibulan Mayor Marcela Bartoces belied Fontelo’s statement, saying all local government units, for that matter, experience a tight fiscal position towards the end of every year.
“It is not correct to say that the job order employees are the reason for the delay in the payment of the Noreco 2 bill because we have also many projects and programs.
In a telephone interview, Bartoces said that the electric bill of the Municipality had already been paid out of the savings of the local government unit. “We not only paid our electric bills but we also paid our fuel bills and our teacher aides in addition to giving cash gifts for our personnel,” she said.
She said that job order employees, or employees employed on project basis, number around 200. Some of these employees, she said, serve as short as two weeks, some serve a month or two months. “We try to rotate their services so that we could accommodate as many job-seekers as possible,” she said.
The Municipality of Sibulan has an income of P82 million, inclusive of the P65 million yearly counterpart from the national government in the form of Internal Revenue Allotment.