Biometrics attendance system

Egay Uy .

THE reported plan of the city government to use a biometrics system to monitor the attendance of employees is a good move even as it may also speak of how lenient the heads of various offices of the local government are in instilling discipline among their respective staff members, attendance-wise.

This report reminds us of the case of a former city councilor who, along with his sister who served as his secretary, was meted by the Sandiganbayan with a penalty of imprisonment, fine and perpetual disqualification to hold public office.

The current practice of manually entering the time attendance of employees by the employees themselves is prone to untruthful entries thus shortchanging the government and the taxpayers of valuable resources.

Among the reasons cited by City Administrator Teddy Sabuga-a Jr. on the use of biometrics system is to address the problem on tardiness and absenteeism among employees. And, this will also provide checks and balances on the availment of “flexi-time” by employees because automated recording of time attended will immediately be reflected in the official records of employees.

Another positive result of biometrics is that preparation of employees’ payrolls can be automated, hence eliminating delays caused by human intervention or manual processing. Biometric systems are automated methods of recognizing a person based on a physiological or behavioral characteristic, most common of which are the features of fingerprints.

Many mayors ago, a timekeeping bundy clock was installed at City Hall to monitor the attendance of employees. I was told that the machine did not last long because employees who were against it deliberately inserted paper clips into the time card slots damaging the machines beyond repair.

With the discontinuance of the use of bundy clocks, nag-ginoberno na sab pagbalik ang mga empleyado, the source added. This is sad to note, considering that there are government employees who are serious working and are dedicated to their respective jobs.

But then again, government workers are required to render service generally for eight hours per working day even as there are those who seem to have been used to making government service their side-line source of income.

From whichever side of the fence the employees are in, the use of biometrics system of monitoring attendance should be welcomed by all.

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In Monday’s column, I missed to mention an original Anak-Baryo, another lawyer in the group, Rico Pajo.

(Egay Uy is a lawyer who serves in the city’s price coordinating council, and Regulatory and Complaints Board.)