Published by Bohol ChronicleWell meaning citizens here has dared the Commission on Audit (COA) to name City Hall officials involved in the staggering accumulation of cash advances of P57.5 million in its 2010 audit report.
“It is the public's desire for the COA to name the city officials or personnel whom they are referring to as 'special disbursing officers' of cash advances, so we can do something about it and initiate filing complaints at the Ombudsman,†said a concerned citizen who called up Station dyRD's “Inyong Alagad†on Monday reacting to a news story published in The Chronicle on Sunday.
Another radio listener asked why the COA has not carried out its mandate of enforcing the settlement of the accumulated cash advances considering this had been found out since 2010.
A city resident also asked that copies of the 2010 audit report for the city government be made available to the public.
“The cash advances only involves a few city officials and employees, and they should be identified by the COA to save other decent and blameless City Hall employees from being unjustly accused of the misdeed,†a dyRD caller said.
In its 2010 audit report, the COA questioned the city government of Tagbilaran for releasing a total of P57,568,419.74 classified as payroll funds but did not have the necessary supporting documents when it was released in 2010 which incidentally was an election year.
It may be recalled that the controversial hiring of city government paid contractual and casual workers which burgeoned in the second half of 2009 leading to the campaign period and elections in May 2010, was questioned by opponents of City Mayor Dan Lim.
The hiring of casual and contractual workers included barangay and purok tanods, barangay and purok health workers, city aides and street sweepers and others employed under the City Task Force of the Office of the City Mayor.
However, just a few months after the synchronized national and local elections (May 2010) and the succeeding barangay elections (October 2010), these casual and contractual workers were laid off despite previous assurances that their employment will be secure until the incumbent mayor ends his term in 2013.
According to the COA, the accumulated amount was released to a special disbursing officer (SDO) in 2010 “without being fully supported with duly approved payrolls.†The said SDO who was not identified in the report failed to liquidate the CA within the allowable period of five days from the date of disbursement.
The report further pointed out that “additional cash advances were granted to this SDO without the previous cash advance settled, all in violation of COA Circular No. 97-002.â€
The COA expressed concern over the apparent leniency on the part of Mayor Dan Lim's administration in the grant of cash advances and the poor monitoring of the required liquidation.
The COA Audit Report also bared that a City Hall Disbursing Officer has ran off with a payroll fund amounting to P1,319,597.95 even as the COA raised fears that such pernicious practice and apparent leniency on the part of City Hall senior officials would “expose government funds to risk of loss thru theft and/or misuse.â€
The COA report did not identify the Disbursing Officer but strongly recommended to management to "compel all regular and special disbursing officers to liquidate their outstanding cash advances" and to stop the granting of CA's pending liquidation of previous CA's.
COA also disclosed that "as of December 31, 2010, total unliquidated cash advances of four SDO's for payroll fund amounted to P12,365,614.07 aging from two days to 721 days".
Of the said huge amount of unliquidated cash advances, only P8,514,103.64 was liquidated after demand letters were issued to the SDO's concerned.
The COA report cited provisions of Article 217 of the Revised Penal Code stating that failure of an accountable officer to liquidate his cash advance constitutes a prima facie presumption that the funds were malversed for personal use and benefit.
Expenses paid out of these Payroll Funds could not be recorded in the books in the year these were incurred, the COA report noted.
The COA also found out that liquidation of cash advances were made over one to seven months from the time the cash advances were drawn while return of excess cash advances were made months after the pay period.
Deficiencies unearthed by the COA report included cash advances drawn even when some payrolls were not due for payment.resulting in the amounts of CA's not fully covered with approved payrolls for wages, allowances, etc.
Some of the payrolls paid were found by the COA audit to be not included in the list of payables.
A City Hall Administrative Officer incurred unliquidated cash advances for Barangay Nutrition in the amount of P27,350.00 and P150,000.00 for an SK Barangay Tournament for a total of P177,350.00, according to the Audit Report.
A strong reminder was issued by COA to the OIC-City Accountant to ensure that the basis for granting cash advances should be the net amount of the payrolls for a pay period already checked and pre-listed by the accounting office to avoid cash balances in the hands of Disbursing Officers.
The SDO's were also told not to pay any payrolls/vouchers presented other than those for the purpose for which the cash advances were drawn.
The Audit Report noted that prior years audit observation on the proper handling of cash advances together with the recommendation were left unheeded by City Hall officials.
Reports by Ven Arigo
Sunday PostThe recent annual audit report on the city government’s 20% Development Fund (DF) has exposed city hall’s own folly and lack of sense. It further indicated the top city officialdom’s bad faith, if not outright dishonesty, and deception to the public in using the same nature of fund as an issue against the provincial capitol. The Tagbilaran government under Mayor Dan Lim did not implement the projects worth almost P28 million out of the city’s 20% DF during budget year 2010 when it was appropriated, according to the Commission on Audit (COA). The report of the findings of the annual audit for 2011 is yet to be known and obtained.
Likewise, the COA found out that another development fund costing almost P9 million and allocated in the same year was instead used for a loan amortization. The fund ought not to be diverted and spent beyond its intent. This is contrary to Section 287 of Republic Act 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991 and the Joint Memorandum Circular No. 1, Series of 2005, of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
The socio-economic programs and projects were thus hampered instead of having them done to the supposed benefit of the constituents of the city, COA lamented in its report. These all came to be known coincidentally in the wake of the revival by the city mayor, this time together with Carmen Mayor Conchita De Los Reyes, of his tiring issue of the 20% DF of the province to discredit Chatto’s administration.
The first-termer lady town mayor has been pushed by Lim and some of his allies who are “unfriendly†to Chatto to clash with the governor in the 2013 election. In press statements supposedly coming right from her, De los Reyes asserted that the province under Gov. Edgar Chatto should equally share its 20% DF to the 47 Bohol towns. Capitol said De los Reyes appears to be “spoon-fed,†if not made an “echo robot,†by Lim because this was exactly the same line mouthed by the city mayor when he “demanded†the same from Chatto in the past.
DISHONEST
While Lim demanded---and now in chorus with De los Reyes---from the province to share equally capitol’s 20% DF to the towns and the city, the annual COA report could hint that the mayor must have acted dishonestly or not in good faith in his “hero-sounding†pronouncement. The COA said that for year 2010 alone, the internal revenue allotment (IRA) received by the city totaled more than P235 million, the 20% of which could amount to more than P47.5 million as development fund. Opposite to what he wanted the province to do, Lim did not tell the people that he himself did not equally divide and share his 20% DF to the 15 barangays in Tagbilaran, according to some barangay officials.
Previously, captains Faro Cabalit of Taloto and Fredison Ingles of Dampas repeatedly assailed neglecting certain essential barangay concerns despite requests and clamor from their constituents. Calls for city hall actions on or assistance attending to vital community needs just fell on deaf ears apparently because they are not allied with the mayor, the barangay officials said. The COA noted further in its review that as of year-end, the implementation of some 20% DF-identified projects of the city with the allocation of more than P27.8 million were not started.
NO LAW MANDATES EQUAL SHARING
No law mandates the province to distribute its 20% DF in the form of shares, much less divide and share it equally. According to COA, Section 287 of the Local Government Code is only clear about every LGU (province, city or town) to appropriate in its annual budget no less than 20% of its yearly IRA for development projects.
These projects are incorporated in the development plan and annual investment plan of the LGU. But despite the absence of a mandatory law, Capitol still has shared its development fund by assisting the LGUs, including the barangays in the municipalities and the city, thru projects funded out of capitol’s 20% DF. Even the town of De los Reyes has aids to the barangays from the development fund of the province, Chatto said on his Kita ug Ang Gobernador live broadcast Friday. Capitol also found Lim’s demand, which the mayor put into the mouth of De los Reyes, for DF shares absurd and awkward.
The governor said the city mayor himself has never ever submitted any project aid request or program of work to the province which should have been the proper protocol. While the intent and spirit of the law governing the 20% DF processes are understood by the barangay officials, some fellow mayors are on the other hand saddened that De los Reyes appears to have allowed herself misguided or misled on the issue. For them, not just biting the bait but “swallowing the hook, line and sinker†can mean a vulnerability that is feared to only proves her incompetence, too.
At city hall, some employees dared hit their mayor for what seems to them his own limited grasp, if not intentional ignorance, of the 20% DF issue which caused him to resort to intriguing. They said late learning about governance is better than never having learned at all, adding that so much precious opportunities have been wasted by the mayor in spending airtime attacking fellow officials and people whose ways are unlike his.
They said it shames as it is distasteful and disgusting seeing on the Internet and live steaming of his paid radio program the city hall chief executive falling into sleep and snoring right fronting his microphone inside the announcer’s booth. The government workers found no wrong in being just concerned because they are a part of Lim’s administration. (Ven rebo Arigo)
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Topic: COA Finds P57 Million Unliquidated Cash in Tagbilaran City Hall (Read 1747 times)