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Friday, September 23, 2005
City Hall's poll expenses unaccounted
By Lizanilla J. Amarga
CITY Hall failed to liquidate P4.873 million in government funds that were used during the 2004 elections, an audit report said.
According to the 2004 annual audit report of the Commission on Audit, City Hall appropriated P300,000 as "rent-expenses" for the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Cagayan de Oro under the Miscellaneous General Public Services fund.
The report said P4.871 million was also appropriated under "election expenses" and it provides no breakdown or supporting documents how it was spent.
Mayor Vicente Emano's political lieutenant, Gusa barangay chief Eric Salcedo said the funds can be fully accounted for.
Salcedo said these funds might have been used to pay the honoraria for teachers who served during the elections. He added that there was also a request from Comelec for the City Government to shoulder certain expenses. However, he failed to specify what was paid for by the city.
Ronald Valdehuesa of the opposition said he could not understand why the City Government needed to allocate P4.871 million for election expenses. If it was to pay the teachers, the amount is too big, he added.
A Comelec officer said there were 1,549 polling precincts in Cagayan de Oro and each precinct is manned by three teachers who were given P1,000 each in allowance for the entire election day.
The said Comelec officer however, said Comelec-Manila paid for all the teachers' honoraria. The same official added that maybe the amount was used to pay for the supplies requested by Comelec and for the overtime pay.
Comelec Regional Director Bernardita Cabacungan confirmed that Comelec-Manila shouldered the honoraria for the teachers who served as Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) during the elections.
Non-issue
A visibly peeved Emano said the matter is a "non-issue". He instead challenged the opposition Thursday to file cases against him before the court even as he explained that the city's financial woes are partly attributed to the unpaid loans of the previous administration.
Emano also emphasized that the city's standing loans are brought about by the local government's heavy investments on infrastructure development in the last years and on various pro-poor projects such as the piso-piso land initiative.
Emano said the non-reconciliation of bank records and financial statements didn't indicate that there was corruption committed.
The mayor said the source of the COA report might have been the COA official tasked to cover the City Government. This official should be asked whether or not there was any corruption committed, he added.
"But I say this if I even stole one percent of the alleged unremitted contributions worth millions of pesos to the GSIS (Government Service Insurance System) then I would resign as mayor," Emano said.
He also defended the city's delayed remittance of employee contributions, saying the previous administration of Mayor Pablo Magtajas did incur defaults that the current leadership has inherited.
Meanwhile, City Accountant Wilma Rugay and Commission on Audit (COA) team leader Palco Seriña have separately evaded media interviews concerning the city's financial records.
Rugay in several visits in her office declined for an interview while Seriña said he will only give information on the city's financial status if summoned by the courts.
When pressed for answers on whether the city has made new developments in terms of fulfilling some of its obligations this year, Seriña intoned that he was not paid by Emano to answer in behalf of the latter. (With reports from Danilo Adorador III and Stephen Capillas)
(September 23, 2005 issue)
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