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COA asked to release cash advances listing
2007 News Archive

The Commission on Audit will be asked to release the list of city hall officials and employees whose cash advances reached to no less than P6.5 million.

City Vice Mayor Jose Antonio Veloso will formally write tomorrow the commission after the committee on appropriations of the Sangguniang Panlungsod failed to show last Friday said list which was expected by the minority bloc as an offshoot of the privilege speech delivered by City Kagawad Djingo Rama.

The minority bloc earlier said they will write a letter to the office of the city mayor to request for the list.  But, this failed after the appropriations chair assumed responsibility to attend to the said request aired by Rama in his privilege speech.

During last Friday’s session, Kag. Oscar Glovasa instead informed the body that he is meeting his committee members with the local finance committee on Wednesday.

Kagawad Rama was surprised why of the several points raised in the 2007 COA Report, only the support document on the unliquidated cash advances was not found in the report.  All the other concerns were documented in the annexes provided in the report.

“If there are advances that have been liquidated already and requirements complied, then it must be reported as well,” Rama said.  He also questioned the catering of meals at City Hall which was described as “lavish, excessive, extravagant and unconscionable.”

“How come it has reached as huge as P6.5 million?” Rama asked based on data he gathered from the 2007 financial report of the city government as reviewed by the Commission on Audit (COA).

Acting City Accountant Kurt Bungabong and City Auditor Teresita Irig had explained that some of the unliquidated cash advances reflected in the COA Report have already been accounted for and some are still in the process of liquidation.

Rama however maintained that “transparency demands that details of the unliquidated cash advances be open for scrutiny”.

“Instead of going around the issue, COA and the city accountant must provide us the names of these officials and city employees,” he stressed.

The lawmaker cited the 1997 Revised Rules of Procedure of the COA which has the sole responsibility of collecting indebtedness due to the government or any of its agencies.

During the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) session last Friday, appropriation committee chairman Kag. Oscar Glovasa was asked regarding the status of the council’s request for COA to explain the contents of the 2007 audit report which was questioned in a privilege speech of Rama.

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