Fledgling Lanao Sur town pioneers ATM payroll for employees

LANAO DEL SUR --- Local officials in the fledgling Lumbatan town are experimenting on an automated bank payroll system for municipal employees, the first ever to try such from among 39 towns in Lanao del Sur.Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and his local government secretary, lawyer Kirby Abdullah, assured to support the initiative, now being pioneered by Lumbatan Mayor Allan Lao.Lao on Friday said their vice-mayor, Mohidin Camid Lao Mua, and members of the municipal council have also been supporting the plan to adapt a bank payroll system for employees of the Lumbatan local government unit.He said each of their municipal employees would soon be paid of their salaries through automated teller machines in a selected bank.Hataman said he was elated learning that there is a town in Lanao del Sur adapting such scheme in a bid to professionalize the municipal bureaucracy. This is a reform initiative worthy of our support,” Hataman told www.ndbcnews.com.ph on Friday, fascinated with Lao’s effort to improve governance in his turf.Lumbatan is a sixth class municipality in the 2nd district of Lanao del Sur. It has a population of 16, 719 people based on a 2010 government census.Population has increased by more than 10 percent in recent years, according to local officials.Local officials are also presently rebuilding the old, dilapidated town hall of Lumbatan for the municipality to have a prominent icon of governance in the area.