COTABATO CITY — Acting Regional Governor Mujib Hataman on Thursday said that henceforth all teachers and employees in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) region will only receive their salaries and wages and other benefits through automated teller machines (ATM).
"Beginning next month, all salaries, wages and other monetary benefits will be coursed through the employees' ATM," Hataman told a news conference Thursday.
Hataman said he already issued a memorandum ordering the release of salaries to teachers be made exclusively via ATM accounts.
Hataman also vowed to purge the Department of Education (DepEd) in the region of ghost teachers and employees.
The same measures will be imposed on all other agencies in the ARMM for the same objective.
"A valid bank account is one way of ensuring the existence of an employee," he said.
The unavailability of ATMs in remote areas of the region is not a compelling reason to make exemptions, according to Hataman.
He said he was not convinced that teachers in far-flung areas won’t make a visit to a more developed town near them at least once a month thus the practice of encashing teachers' salaries.
The OIC governor is determined to impose the measure and appears to be unfazed by possible opposition from some employees.
Hataman has summoned regional and provincial officials of DepEd-ARMM to a meeting to discuss his marching order and other policies meant to address perennial issues in the department.
Alleged corruption issues have hounded DepEd-ARMM for years with controversies ranging from the non-remittance of the GSIS contributions of its employees to the uncovering of ghost teachers, employees and even ghost schools.
The ARMM chief said he will personally deal with the issue of corruption in the department in the first 100 days of his administration.
“Gusto namin after 100 days tapos na ang problema namin sa ghosts (We hope to end the problem on ghosts after 100 days)," he said.
He said he was disappointed on a list presented to him during the course of their inventory of DepEd-ARMM’s personnel that apparently does not contain enough information to verify the existence of teachers in the region.
Hataman said the list does not provide clear information on the teacher’s address and school assignments which make it useless in tracking them down.
The former Anak Mindanao partylist representative has asked the region’s education officials to identify the schools covered by the approved P1-billion school building program for this year.
Hataman said there are schools in the region that have more than enough school buildings in relation to the total number of enrollees and teachers while other schools are in dire need of infrastructures.
He said school buildings should be put up where it is needed most and not constructed in areas due to tribal and political affiliations. (PNA)
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