Thursday, October 02, 2008 Oro budget 'insertion' bared By Danilo V. Adorador III
TIRED of the insertion brouhaha at the Senate? Try the local “baby” version.
State auditors have found an inappropriate insertion in the payments of lands expropriated by the Cagayan de Oro government in its various infrastructure projects.
Amounting to P339,037.47, the amount was given as financial assistance to the Gusa Landless and United Settlers Association and the Padayon Pilipino (PDP) Homeowners as equity for the land they had acquired. It was inserted in the P22 million paid land payments to landowners affected by the several road and bridge projects by the city.
The assistance is prohibited because the acquired land went to the two settler groups, not to the City Government, according to the Commission on Audit (COA) in its 2007 Annual Audit Report.
In addition, the COA report also revealed the local government’s penchant for expropriating vast amount of lands even without the actual availability of funds, resulting to the payments being made on installment basis.
At one time, the city expropriated over P117 million worth of lands for the construction of 5th Bridge Access Road, the P400 million South Diversion Road and other minor road projects.
That amount was down to over P85 million as of December, 2007.
COA said the practice is against Section 85 of PD 1445, which provides that, “No contract involving the expenditure of public funds shall be entered into unless there is an appropriation therefore, the unexpended balance of which, free of other obligation is sufficient to cover the proposed expenditure.”
Further, COA also found undisclosed land expropriation payments amounting to P5 million and P339,037.47 in court deposits.
“The non-disclosure may also affect funding requirements in the ensuing year and on the accurate assessment of the financial condition of the City,” the state auditing agency said.
