THE municipal council of Compostela is asking the anti-graft office to look into the alleged shortage in the town’s treasury and the mayor’s reported refusal to fire the town treasurer despite advice from the Commission on Audit (COA).

The council passed Resolution 66, which called for the investigation, during their session last Monday and furnished the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas a copy yesterday morning.

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“The body is afraid that there might be a collusion (between) the municipal treasurer and other government officials (over) the cash shortage after the defiance of the municipal mayor to immediately relieve the municipal treasurer,” the resolution read.

But Compostela Mayor Ritchie Wagas, through his consultant and brother Gilbert, brushed the allegations aside in an interview with Sun.Star Cebu.

He said the authority to replace the municipal treasurer belongs to the finance secretary, and that the mayor’s participation is only to submit a list of nominees for the position.

“The mayor already did that,” said Gilbert, a former town mayor.

Resolution 66 is premised on the committee report prepared by the town council’s committee on appropriations, finance and ways and means, chaired by Councilor Tessa Paradiang-Cang.

The report, among others, made reference to the Aug. 15, 2008 letter of COA’s Renee Tan Empaces to Provincial Treasurer Roy Salubre that, in turn, spoke of the
P6,574,011.60 shortage auditors noted in the cash accounts of municipal treasurer Lorenzo Almodiel.

The report likewise cited the Nov. 10, 2008 letter Salubre sent to Wagas to follow up on the relief of Almodiel and to ask Wagas to name a replacement.

It also mentioned two letters, one dated Feb. 27 this year and the other, June 2, both addressed to Wagas and both following up on Almodiel’s relief and replacement.

“The inaction of the mayor on all the correspondence mentioned in this committee report receives the greatest condemnation from this committee. If indeed he is sincere and his position is untarnished by these findings, then why should he maintain and not do anything that would best protect our municipality’s coffers?” the report read.

Shortage

COA, in an audit inquiry, checked the municipality’s finance books sometime in 2007 and declared it to be P6,547,011.60 short.

The shortage went up to P7,524,011.60 in 2008, per a report dated Nov. 27 that year, due to a P1.4-million credit adjustment made on the town’s time deposit with the Philippine Postal Savings Bank.

Almodiel was also found to have attempted to alter records to “conceal his shortage” by making it appear that two checks were deposited on April 13 and 24, 2007, when the bank’s validation showed the actual date to be April 26.

Speaking on behalf of the mayor, Gilbert downplayed the COA’s findings, adding that Almodiel, who has been in office since the time of former town mayor Antonio Dangoy, says the shortfall was because of cash advances which have already been liquidated, though not yet settled.

 This, he said, meant that the supporting papers for the advances were already submitted though not yet reflected in the audit books.

He said the mayor did not relieve Almodiel immediately because he wanted to give the official time to clarify the matter.

 Moreover, he said, the authority to replace the treasurer did not belong to the mayor but to the secretary of finance.

“I don’t know what their problem is,” he said.

He instead accused the complaining officials of trying to divert public discussion towards the mayor and away from them and their failure to pass the town’s budget for 2009.