PB approves outsourcing of workers

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu Provincial Board yesterday approved two resolutions authorizing Governor Gwendolyn Garcia to sign a memorandum of agreement with LBP Services Corporation for the outsourcing of medical and clerical personnel.

Resolution No. 14-10968 authorizes Garcia to sign the MOA to outsource clerical and non-medical personnel while Resolution No. 14-10967 covers the MOA for the outsourcing of medical employees.

The two resolutions were authored by First District Board Member Raul Bacaltos. They were co-authored by Second District Board Member Edsel Galeos and Third District Board Member Victoria Corominas-Toribio.

With the authority, the province may now outsource from LBP 443 medical personnel for the 16 district and provincial hospitals and 359 clerical and non-medical personnel for the departments of the provincial government and hospitals.

The contract is valid for one year starting from October of this year.

This move by the province to outsource employees and discard of "unnecessary labor", according to Garcia, is geared towards the goal of saving public funds.

Since the new personnel will not be directly hired by the provincial government, they will not be covered by the Salary Standardization Law for government employees which mandates the government units to provide for higher salary levels for their staff.

LBP offered the winning bid of P176,661,042.12 for the outsourcing of medical personnel and P82,966,927.39 for non-medical personnel.

Copies of the resolutions will be forwarded to the Office of the Governor, Office of the Provincial Administrator, the Bids and Awards Committee and the Provincial Legal Office for Information.

Copies of the resolution will also be made available in the Legislative Bulletin Board and key points in the Capitol Compound for public information and for transparency.

The Bids and Awards Committee earlier awarded the contract to LBP.

“Na-award na ni sa BAC (Bids and Awards Committee)... and i-introduce pa ni namo sa Provincial Board (The Bids and Awards Committee has awarded the contract to LBP and we will introduce this to the Provincial Board),” said Provincial General Services Officer Bernard Calderon.

Commenting on the slight decrease in the number of non-medical personnel, Calderon said it is a necessary correction to make it 396. He assured that the provincial government will request for more personnel from LBP when the need arises.

“Sa contract actually is, although kani ra, pwede sad ni mo-increase as the need arises ra. Tan-awon namo… kung kuwang pa gyud, then pwede mi ka-increase (While this is what’s stipulated in the contract, we can increase the number as the need arises. We’ll see… if we really need more, we can get more)," Calderon said.

He added that they can also remove outsourced personnel anytime as provided for in the contract with LBP. (FREEMAN)