EMPLOYEES of government offices such as the Cebu City Hall will be prohibited from using social networking sites during office hours.

Cebu City Councilor Dave Tumulak yesterday said he will file a resolution banning these sites on all computers in government offices.

It will be strongly implemented in City Hall, he said.

“The purpose (of the resolution) is to maximize the time to serve the public. While they are using it on duty, they are using government resources,” he said.

Tumulak added that since public servants are paid by the taxes of the people, they should perform their tasks accordingly.

However, employees can still use their social media accounts during off hours but with their own device and connection.

“They can use their social media during off duty but using their own cell phone and personal data connection and not at the expense of the government,” he said.

Tumulak said search engines will still be available.

In a meeting with the city’s Management Information and Computer Services (MICS), he learned that using social media sites can reduce the bandwidth of the existing internet connection. It can also be prone to software virus.

“This is just to safeguard our data and our system connection because we have important files,” he said.