By Mae Singuay 

Five regular employees of Bacolod City government were served a show cause order in relation to the missing government service vehicles.

Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said the employees, composed of a driver, an engineer and three officers, were from different departments in the city hall.

The names of the employees are being withheld for anonymity.

The show cause order was issued yesterday, after the city government conducted an inventory of all government-issued vehicles.

Benitez said the inventory revealed that there were some service vehicles which were not accounted for by the persons in-charge.

An investigation was conducted and the involved employees had no valid reasons why the vehicles went missing, he added.

They were given five days to answer the show cause order upon receipt.

“This is to show why no criminal, civil or any administrative case shall be filed against them,” part of the order said.

Benitez said he will issue preventive suspensions against the said employees depending on the result of the process.

He added the Commission on Audit will govern those regulations.

In February of this year, the city government issued notices to explain to 45 city government employees about the whereabouts of government vehicles reported as missing.

The inventory of the General Services Office showed that 77 have been accounted for, but still not physically seen during the time of inspection, while the remaining 45 have not been located yet.

They were also asked to explain whether the vehicles issued to them are now unserviceable.

The physical inventory of the city government-owned vehicles was part of the preparations for the establishment of a ride-hailing system for the departments and offices in the city hall.

Of the total 500 units, 88 are not reported, 197 vehicles are serviceable, 108 are unserviceable, 90 are not found, 13 have no documents to be verified, and four were already returned./MS, WDJ