GENERAL SANTOS CITY — State auditors have flagged hundreds of job order (JO) and casual workers hired by the General Santos City government after many of them could not be accounted for during a recent personnel validation, raising questions over whether public funds were paid out for services that were never clearly verified.

In its 2024 audit report, the Commission on Audit (CoA) said only 2,526 of the 3,296 JO and casual personnel listed by the city government were successfully validated. The remaining 770 workers could not be physically or administratively confirmed, prompting auditors to question the regularity of the wage payments made to them.

CoA noted that the unvalidated personnel were spread across several offices, including 27 from the City Mayor’s Office, 46 from the Local School Board, 66 from the Integrated Barangay Affairs Division, 115 from the City Vice Mayor’s Office, and 192 assigned to the Peace and Order Program — Local Task Force, among others.

“The presence of unaccounted job order and casual employees casts doubt on the propriety and regularity of the wage payments,” CoA said, pointing to possible weaknesses in internal controls and personnel management.

Auditors also cited the failure of some department heads and administrative officers to submit documents that could have explained the absences, such as travel orders, attendance records, or other proof that the workers were on official field assignments at the time of validation.

While acknowledging management’s efforts to address the issue, CoA said several personnel still remained unverified as to whether they actually rendered services during the audit period.

The commission warned that the situation exposes the city government to the risk of continuing to release public funds to workers whose performance of duties cannot be clearly established — an outcome that undermines accountability and fiscal discipline.