Cebu City Hall told: Recover P43M -AA+A By Princess Dawn H. Felicitas Saturday, August 3, 2013 CEBU CITY -- The City Government failed to recover P43.4 million worth of funds from its accountable officers and collectors, the Commission on Audit (COA) said. This is among the 39 deficiencies that COA noted in an audit of the City’s operations and transactions in 2012. In the annual audit report, COA Supervising Auditor Delia Monte de Ramos said that of the total amount that has not yet been recovered, P38,732,612 represented a shortage of remittance by accountable officers. This has become the subject of a criminal case that the court has decided, she pointed out. COA lamented the failure to recover the P38.7 million, considering that the concerned accountable officers have been convicted by the court. The annual audit report, however, did not enumerate who these accountable officers were. Some P3.7 million, COA explained, were the accumulated shortages of tax collectors “that were not restituted.” While the City Treasurer’s Office has already sent a notice to the concerned tax collector for the immediate settlement of the shortages, COA noted that the City recovered only P715 out of the P3.7 million as of January 2013. “This clearly indicates a breakdown of internal control since assets were not amply safeguarded from physical loss through fraud and embezzlement,” said Monte de Ramos. Monte de Ramos cited Presidential Decree 1445, otherwise known as the Government Auditing Code of the Philippines, which provides that public officers authorized to receive and collect taxes, revenues or receipts of any kind shall remit or deposit intact the full amount. No extra effort “The continued inaction of concerned accountable officers to settle their shortages immediately and the lack of extra effort by officials to recover the amounts due to the City had deprived the City Government from the use of such funds for projects,” she said. COA then recommended to the City to demand the immediate restitution of the shortages and other accounts from concerned accountable officials and employees. “We further recommend that the City Legal Office institute legal proceedings against the properties of the defaulting employees in order to facilitate the recovery of the amount malversed,” Monte de Ramos added. In a related development, COA said that the City did not fully recover P70.7 million worth of disallowances last year. Of the total amount, the City only collected P2,651,976. Monte de Ramos told the City to require all persons with disallowances to immediately settle their obligations. Aside from that, COA said the City failed to liquidate P8.2 million worth of cash advances, and additional cash advances were granted even if the previous ones remained unliquidated. Settle now This violated COA Circular 97-002, which requires all cash advances to be fully liquidated by the end of the year. COA told the City to instruct the disbursing officers to immediately settle all their cash advances. Also, COA said the City failed to liquidate P1.65 million worth of cash advances for travel. Of the total amount, some P1.1 million remained unliquidated for one to six years already. COA told the City to impose sanctions on the concerned officials and employees if they will not settle their outstanding cash advances. Other unliquidated funds, COA said, include P76 million worth of financial aid to non-government organizations (NGO) and private organizations (PO). Of the amount, some P54.7 million were cash aid extended by the City in 2011 and in previous years. Monte de Ramos said this violates COA Circular 2007-001, which requires all NGOs and POS to submit fund utilization reports within 60 days after the completion of a project. Demand letters Monte de Ramos ordered the City to send demand letters to the concerned organizations for the immediate submission of a liquidation report. “We further recommend for the City to institute legal actions, if necessary, against defaulting NGOs and POs,” she added. Lastly, COA said some P509 million worth of financial assistance given to different municipalities, cities, provinces and various barangays were not liquidated. Monte de Ramos said some of these financial packages were given over two years ago. COA asked the City to issue demand letters for the immediate submission of utilization reports so that all the funds can be properly accounted for. COA submitted its annual audit report to the City last July 10.
Posted on: Fri, 02 Aug 2013 23:07:58 +0000
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