Rafael Antonio and Kathleen de Villa of the Philippine Daily Inquirer's Research team report that Makati City appears to be the only city in Metro Manila that still distributes wages to government employees through "archaic" pay envelopes instead of automated teller machines (ATM), based on a Commission on Audit (COA) report.
The report noted that "16 of the capital's 17 LGUs (Local Government Units) have been using the digitized payroll system since 2003." In comparison, Makati City, which has nearly 9,000 regular and casual workers, "has not yet updated its payroll system" according to the COA's 2012 audit report.
"The COA noted that drawbacks to Makati's payroll system include the high risk of loss or misapplication, loss of working hours for employees, long queues at the teller's booths, and the tedious manual distribution of cash to 4,024 regular and 4,794 casual employees every payday." Makati City spokesperson Joey Salgado said officials have been working on implementing the ATM system since the 1990s, but the effort was "being stalled by changes in the personnel department."
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